Dr. Avnish Jolly,7 June:Two day seminar on "Women in Media: Fighting Stereotypes-Identity & Gender" inaugurated by Resident Editor of Indian Express, Mr. Vipin Pubby,at the Golden Jubilee auditorium at Panjab University today.
He said that gradually the women journalists are being promoted to key positions who are displaying professional excellence. Though National Commission for Women presented discriminating data indicating 45.5% of women journalists were discriminated due to sex and age.
Shayda, Dainik Bhaskar and Renuka Salwan, Bureau of Indian Standards, Chaired Technical session on problems faced by women journalists who referred to day-to-day ego hassles that women face with their men counterparts and said that at every step a woman journalist has to put extra efforts to prove herself in her work.
Gayatri Rajwade, instead advised the need to rise above the gender problems and focus on the work at hand and giving one’s best to it. She underlined the need for a government policy for working women and creation of enough infrastructural support system to enable the women journalists as well as other working women to give their best. She however expressed the need for gender sensitisation right from the childhood and discrimination between a boy and a girl in the home itself should be tackled first.
Jaskiran, Indian Express said, are more effective in their profession because of their inherent sensitive nature and motherly instincts, though at times, it does become a hurdle in one’s career growth, what she described as "friendliness trap".
Dr. Mohanmeet Khosla, Chairperson of Department of Mass Communication, Panjab University, spoke about the exploitation and depiction of woman body in the media for commercial interests whereas the vital women issues get ignored while Capt Balwant Gurunay expressed the growing trend of stereotyping women in cinema and other media.
Prof. Sherry Sabharwal, Chairperson, Department of Sociology, spoke about the under-representation and mis-representation of women and the systematic symbolic annihiliation of her image in the media, whereas the need is to highlight the success stories, the plight of rural poor and older women. There is no need to forget or ignore your womanhood while being a totally professional at work, she emphasised.
Lalita Jagmohan Singh, a Lecturer in English from Panjab Engineering College, expressed concern at the way the media was portraying woman which is far removed from reality, and wondered whether media is truly reflecting the society or shaping the society.
Nandini Sahai, Director, Media Information and Communication Centre of India, which had organised the seminar, underlined the need for women journalists to form an activist group to address issues like transparency in recruitments, promotions, maternity leave, insurance, and other facilities and child care facilities and maternity leaves are two major concerns for women journalists, besides there being a major divide in HR policies in media.
Rajeshwar Dyal, Advisor, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the New Delhi based German foundation, which was a partner for the seminar, speaking on the occasion referred to two media surveys conducted in 1993 and 2004, which showed that less than one percent space was being devoted to women issues, and there had not been much change in these two studies, except in the vernacular media, where coverage level showed an increase to two percent. He lamented that none of the organisations has a clear gender policy whereas the immediate neighbour Pakistan has defined it though it is another matter that out of the 395 women journalists surveyed there only one woman was in a position of decision-making.
Ms Dona Suri, Associate Editor, Hindustan Times, in her keynote address, remarked that there had been technological revolution in print media and at the same time, more stark change had been that of its corporatisation which is leading to many women issues getting ignored and whatever women-related stories are published revolve around the commercial aspects to enable sale of advertisements around them. She affirmed that gender issue runs across entire society and women journalists should not expect any help except believing in her own strength and expertise.
The out come of the first day stressed upon Need for reporting women issues highlighted and discuss on the formulation of Gender Policy for Print and Electronic Media will be organized on the second day at Golden Jubilee Auditorium, Panjab University, Sector 14, Chandigarh on Sunday, 8th June 2008 at 10am.