Journalism goes into the slums

As mainstream newspapers and television stations increasingly leave out the voices of the marginalised an alternative press is emerging thats trying to correct the anomaly This new breed does not possess any fancy journalism degrees They are just slum dwellers farmers and diamond polishers who want to tell their story In Anna Bhau Sathe Nagar one of Mankhurds larger slums 26 yearold Amol Lalzare emerges from his 20x7 feet oneroom home ready for work Everyone knows me as a reporter My last story on a local pickle maker and how his factory was unhygienic led him to clean up his whole operation I wonder what impact my pothole story will have Amol Lazare Maharashtra Community CorrespondentHis favourite pink shirt gleams in the afternoon sun thats an unexpected guest in a week marred by heavy rain Youd think Lalzare is heading for a job interview Instead he walks over to a neighbouring slumHere in a bylane of Zakir Hussain Nagar he speaks with a number of residents recording every conversation on a digital camera that can also tape video albeit only for twohoursWhen he will return home Lalzare will sit down to prepare the script of his P2C an abbreviation of what in television lingo refers to Piece to CameraThis son of a construction labourer whose neighbours include scrap dealers buyers and sellers of plastic bottles garlic sellers and domestic helps is a Community Correspondent He is currently working on a story about Zakir Hussain Nagars potholed bylanesu00a0Referring to campaigns against bad roads carried out recently by mainstream press Lalzare says They spoke of potholes on roads What about the potholes in the slums This young man isnt the only one asking such questions As a media explosion unfolds in the country a large number of Indians find themselves and their lives excluded from itLittle wonder then that Indian journalism is finally seeing an alternative space emerge It might pale in comparison with the behemoths of television stations and newspapers but for a large section it is an alternate voice unheard of beforeCrash course in journalismLalzare for instance works with IndiaUnheard a news service that is backed by the human rights nongovernmental organisation NGO Video Volunteers VV VV also helps other NGOs incorporate videos in their works In all India Unheard has 45 Community Correspondents fanned across 27 Indian statesThis group hasnt graduated from fancy journalism schools But they have undergone a crash course in reporting recording and editing videos They come from marginalised communities Some of them are Dalits and tribals from Manipur and Chhattisgarh reporting on stories that unfold around themOthers like Lalzare who are based in Indias cities report on living conditions in their neighbourhoodsIndiaUnheard gives all its correspondents cameras correspondents pay back the cost of the equipment in installments and laptops Lalzare and his colleagues earn Rs 1300 for every story filedVideo mags where newspapers dont reachIn the villages of Surendranagar district in Gujarat a region like most other rural areas of India a news vacuum exists Here the monthly Aapna Malak Ma In Our Community screenings have turned into a looked forwardto event Very few homes here are fitted with a television set and newspapers that make their way in afternoon busses from a neighbouring city have very little content that concerns them And when it rains the newspapers dont make it IndiaUnheards team of Community Correspondents hold up their cameralaptop kits The news service has 45 Community Correspondents fanned across 27 Indian states This group has undergone a crash course in reporting recording and editing videos They come from marginalised communities Some of them are Dalits and tribals from Manipur and Chhattisgarh reporting on stories that unfold around themThe Aapna Malak Ma team supported by the NGO Navsarjan and consisting of villagers reports produces and screens monthly video magazines essentially news videos about issues that concern residents hereWhile the team was set up in 2006 as an arm of YUVA Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action the screenings in village squares and chowks have become so successful that in July this year the team registered itself as an independent NGO A farmercumjournalistThe working of the sixmember team is simple The motley group of diamond polishers farmers housewives and a marriage video maker has undergone yearlong training on how to report use cameras and edit videos They conduct an editorial meeting every three months where attendees apart from the team include panchayat sarpanchs and representatives of various communities in the villagesOften these representatives or other village sources who trust the team then ply them with information This is then crosschecked and once a subject is frozen upon the team starts its reportage What began as reporting and screening in 25 villages has now expanded to 42Like Aapna Malak Ma the IndiaUnheard group is also seeing success Early this year from January till March NewsX a national news channel tied up with them buying the agencys content for Speak Out a weekly 30minute show aired on the channel Their content has also been purchased and aired by other mainstream bodies like the MTV network and Al Jazeera and now the popular news website Rediff plans to run a pilot IndiaUnheard story on its website before a deal on a regular show is worked out Apart from such mainstream outlets their stories are also carried on the IndiaUnheard website and spread through networking sitesWhile much of the fanfare associated with the mainstream press may be missing the journalism of the correspondents is thorough For his Zakir Hussain Nagar story Lalzare says he is following the regular approach of case studies and expert opinion On an average he spends about five days on every story The first couple of days go into researching the subject Then I find the right people to interview he saysWhen heavy rains lash Mumbais slums the drains running nearby overflow leaving pedestrians tripping over potholes which they are unable to spot I have interviewed a number of people but my main case study is a lady who was heavily pregnant when she tripped in one of these potholes leading to a leg fractureJessica Mayberry founder of VV who has experience of working in television stations including the Fox News Channel and CNN says In both the production and meaningful consumption of media the poor and marginalised find themselves excludedu00a0If we want to change the way people think we must change the way the media operates Community media can become a global movement because of the cost of technology and the ease of distributionWhen a Thakur was brought to his kneesEver since Aapna Malak Ma was launched the group has made much impact within the community One of their best stories was screened last year It concerned the Chorniya village where a powerful Thakur had built a hotel on a national highway and was dumping its waste in the village pond The men afraid of the Thakur did not put up a fight but the womenfolk were galvanised by the video They carried out a demonstration at the Collectors office and handed him a copy of the videou00a0The Thakur had to come to the village to apologise He had to build an entire system to dispose the waste says Jitendra S Makavana the 25 yearold Community Producer who previously worked as a diamond polisher Otherwise even to get members of upper and lower castes to sit together for a screening is a big achievement Makavana says Sometimes members of upper castes dislike the content of the videos At times they have hurled stones at the screen At such times the screening is moved to small gullies where the lower castes watch the videos without fearA recent video by IndiaUnheard about the lack of healthcare in a remote Manipuri village called Bongli where residents were resorting to herbs and faithhealing to cure their sick led to various organisations helping them get access to medicinesMerinews team of subeditorsAnd then there is the story of a demonstration launched in a conservative town in Chhattisgarh with protesters demanding acceptance of sexual minorities after a video about the repression was aired on its websiteExpansion of alternate voicesIn Mumbai Hamari Awaaz a team of slum dwellers who film videos about life in the citys slums was able to stop the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in 2007 from privatising water services in the K East region A video on the issue was screened and led to protests by slum dwellersu00a0The fear was that water services once privatised would lead to restricted access to water for slum dwellers The Hamari Awaaz team consists of six producers or reporters and is supported by the NGO Yuva They have been in existence since 2006 and have made films on subjects ranging from garbage disposal to slum demolitionsHowever the group now has bigger plans in store Since 2010 no videos have been produced and the group is eagerly waiting to start operations in the slum areas of Navi Mumbai and Raigad We want to take this idea ahead We will now spread the concept of alternate voices to neighbouring regions says Anil Ingle Hamari Awaaz Coordinator While no date has been fixed for the launch according to Ingle the logistics are being finalisedHowever hopeful their message the one major challenge that these outlets face is to move from being charityfunded operations to selfsustained bodiesu00a0IndiaUnheard though still largely funded by VV is trying to move in that direction Mayberry says TV channels and papers are starved for good content If there are welltrained people in remote underreported areas who can produce quality content why cant they be utilised she saysWhether such alternative journalism will survive has to be seen but the most visible impact it seems to be leaving is on the journalist himself Lalzare sat for his Class 10 board exams this year after dropping out of school as a child He now plans to pursue Mass CommunicationEveryone knows me as a reporter My last story on a local pickle maker and how his factory was unhygienic led him to clean up his whole operation I wonder what impact my pothole story will have he saysu00a0Perhaps the potholes will be filled up Imagine that Even the big papers and TV channels havent been successful in making Mumbais roads potholefreeLook how Citizen Journalism is thrivingOne form of alternate media that has come to form a successful and profitable model is that of websites based on citizen journalism A large number of such Indian websites some of which have specific target audiences have sprung up in recent years These include The Viewspaper httptheviewspapernet a website for the youth and White Drums wwwwhitedrumscom which publishes content on environmental issues Merinews merinewscom the first such website and considered one of the best is owned by Bizsol Advisors a well known business incubating company in GurgaonThe only people on the websites payroll are a staff of 20 many of who are on the news desk This team which edits articles that are written by citizen journalists and in the case of big story speaks and helps them out with news angles is the backboneSudipta Sengupta General Manager of the website says this form of journalism has a definite space since it is far more democratic than mainstream media He offers as way of example a recent news development For the past month while TV stations and newspapers were talking about the nations support for Anna Hazares most of the articles I got done surprisingly did not reflect that view Such a model is perhaps the best tool to gauge peoples mood he says The new crop of journalistsDaniel Mate ManipurCommunity Correspondent Mates story on a rural village in the Chandel district of Manipur an area rife with ethnic and political conflict which did not have access to basic healthcare had a major impact Within a month of the videos broadcast several cartons of lifesaving medicine were sent in by a local organisation Bhan Sahu ChattisgarhSahu thought being poor meant walking a kilometre to school and then having to drop out when she was eight years old until she started working at an NGO and realised there were others less fortunate than herself Her interest in education didnt wane however Using video as a tool to bring people together her reports focus on education and the rights of tribalsIf we want to change the way people think we must change the way the media operates Our community media can become a global movementu00a0Jessica Mayberry Founder IndiaUnheardToday anyone with a mobile phone can record events and most people have views which they cannot otherwise express in the mediaSudipta Sengupta General Manager MerinewsSometimes members of upper castes dislike the content of the video There have even been instances where they have thrown stones during the screeningsJitendra S Makavana Community Producer