It is time to evolve a social diversity index for media outlets, or a measure to gauge the caste heterogeneity of their employees. It should be made mandatory for the Central and state governments to refer to such an index before they issue advertisements. Tax breaks should be given to corporates and individuals either advertising with or donating money to media outlets that rank in the top 20 on the social diversity scale.

These measures could help socially diversify Indian media, which is dominated by upper-caste journalists. This is vividly brought out by the 2022 Oxfam India-Newslaundry report—Who tells our stories matters: Representation of Marginalised Caste Groups in Indian Media. Their survey shows that 88.1 per cent of leadership positions in the media—editor-in-chief, managing editor, executive editor, bureau chief, resident editor, director and producer—were held by the upper castes. In contrast, the presence of the Other Backward Classes dipped from 4.06 per cent in 2019 to 3.57 per cent in 2022.