Themes > Current Issues
06.06.2008
Bread,
Circuses and The Media
Jayati
Ghosh
What
is more, despite the rapid GDP growth and all the government promises
about providing some relief and social protection of unorganised workers,
nothing has been done and there is absolutely nothing in the form of minimum
provisions for health care, insurance, pension and so on for these millions
of workers who are labouring in these wretched conditions.
Such worsening conditions predictably find little or no coverage in the media. But even when a major strike was organised in the industrial areas of greater Delhi over 24-25 April to protest against these worsening labour conditions, there was still hardly any mention of it in the newspapers and absolutely none on the major local or national TV channels.
The strike involved several thousands of workers in the industrial areas of Mayapuri, Mongolpuri, Wazirpur, Okhla, Ghaziabad and some parts of NOIDA. In each of these areas, there were processions and picketing by large numbers of workers: in Mongolpuri between 15,000 – 20,000 workers gathered around the pickets on both days; in Badali there was a complete strike and a procession by more than 5,000 workers; in Okhla a thousand workers marching in a procession were attacked and dispersed by police; there was a complete strike in Site 4 industrial areas of Ghaziabad; in NOIDA the police resorted to lathi-charge of several thousand workers at the Labour Chowk in Phase II; in Karol Bagh several hundred rickshaw pullers an vendors took out a procession and the Sabzi Mandi was closed down for a day.
It would seem that these are sufficiently major events to warrant at least some mention in the media. But the main newspapers covered nothing. Instead, a small demonstration of less than a hundred medical students protesting against OBC quotas was given a lot of publicity, with photographs, in almost all the newspapers. The news channels – even the ones that claim to cover the city and local news – did not provide any coverage of this strike, the various protests and processions of many thousands of people, or the dreadful conditions that have led the workers to protest in the first place.
It is difficult to estimate how much worse things must get for the workers before there is some public outcry. But it may not be difficult to guess how much anger and resentment all this must be creating among the workers themselves. It is of course common among the working class to blame government, employers, etc for their bad conditions of work, and it is obvious that they are responsible.
But the media is generally perceived to be playing a more positive role, the essential role in a democracy of pointing out the reality and forcing not only society but also government and employers to respond. Instead, our media seem to have abdicated this role, and have become themselves very corporate-driven and insensitive to the conditions of the majority. The disconnect between the elite (including the media) and the people at large continues to grow, and it is a disconnect that will ultimately be the most dangerous for the elite.
Such worsening conditions predictably find little or no coverage in the media. But even when a major strike was organised in the industrial areas of greater Delhi over 24-25 April to protest against these worsening labour conditions, there was still hardly any mention of it in the newspapers and absolutely none on the major local or national TV channels.
The strike involved several thousands of workers in the industrial areas of Mayapuri, Mongolpuri, Wazirpur, Okhla, Ghaziabad and some parts of NOIDA. In each of these areas, there were processions and picketing by large numbers of workers: in Mongolpuri between 15,000 – 20,000 workers gathered around the pickets on both days; in Badali there was a complete strike and a procession by more than 5,000 workers; in Okhla a thousand workers marching in a procession were attacked and dispersed by police; there was a complete strike in Site 4 industrial areas of Ghaziabad; in NOIDA the police resorted to lathi-charge of several thousand workers at the Labour Chowk in Phase II; in Karol Bagh several hundred rickshaw pullers an vendors took out a procession and the Sabzi Mandi was closed down for a day.
It would seem that these are sufficiently major events to warrant at least some mention in the media. But the main newspapers covered nothing. Instead, a small demonstration of less than a hundred medical students protesting against OBC quotas was given a lot of publicity, with photographs, in almost all the newspapers. The news channels – even the ones that claim to cover the city and local news – did not provide any coverage of this strike, the various protests and processions of many thousands of people, or the dreadful conditions that have led the workers to protest in the first place.
It is difficult to estimate how much worse things must get for the workers before there is some public outcry. But it may not be difficult to guess how much anger and resentment all this must be creating among the workers themselves. It is of course common among the working class to blame government, employers, etc for their bad conditions of work, and it is obvious that they are responsible.
But the media is generally perceived to be playing a more positive role, the essential role in a democracy of pointing out the reality and forcing not only society but also government and employers to respond. Instead, our media seem to have abdicated this role, and have become themselves very corporate-driven and insensitive to the conditions of the majority. The disconnect between the elite (including the media) and the people at large continues to grow, and it is a disconnect that will ultimately be the most dangerous for the elite.
© MACROSCAN
2008