Activist media changing lives of common people, uncovering new heroes
Far removed from the heart-rending picture of him carrying his dead wife on his shoulders, Kalahandi’s Dana Majhi found himself again in the headlines a few days ago. This time, the man was happily perched on his latest acquisition, a brand new bike. The picture went viral.
More than a year after the tragic incident that shook the collective conscience of a welfare state, Majhi has finally found himself at the right end of social justice. He is about to shift to a new house constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin, his three daughters are receiving education in a residential school in Bhubaneswar, the MGNREGA wages have been paid, and there is a decent bank balance of about Rs 15 lakh which he can fall back upon in times of distress. Majhi has remarried and life is good. Now he has everything to live a life of dignity.
Several kilometres away from his village in Amlapali, Phanus Punji cannot boast of such a change in his fortune. It has been more than 30 years since then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi dashed off to Kalahandi district to meet the woman who, unable to suffer the pangs of starvation, had sold off her teenage sister-in-law Banita for a mere Rs 40 to a blind man. The 56-year-old woman continues to live in penury.
The contrast between Phanus Punji of 1984 and Dana Majhi of 2017 is because of a vibrant media, relentless in its effort to mirror everything wrong with the existing system. Had it not been for the 24x7 coverage of the inhuman treatment Majhi was meted out by an apathetic district administration, the Kalahandi tribal would have remained faceless like thousands of others or, perhaps, faded into obscurity after a brief media glare, like Phanus Punji. Accuse them of sensationalisation if you must, but it was a zealous media which dissected every flaw in governance -- from non-existent road communications to an abysmal health care system -- that keeps throwing up Dana Majhis everywhere.
Phanus Punji, therefore, was not so lucky. Though the media of the 1980s had fiercely taken up the issue, it had neither the resources nor the reach of today which could have made a life-changing impact. From Rajiv Gandhi to Narendra Modi; from JB Patnaik to Naveen Patnaik, India has come a long way over the last three decades, but those in the bottom of the country’s development pyramid continue to seek deliverance from the vicious cycle of socio-economic deprivation.
The unrelenting television channels, digital platforms, social media and newspapers have pushed the boundaries to highlight failures in the system. Fifteen years ago, who could have thought that the plight of a tribal villager living in Odisha’s remotest corner would move the Prince of Bahrain?
Intense media scrutiny today ensures that the government of the day can no longer take things for granted.
A few weeks ago, Pramodini Roul, an acid attack victim of Jagatsinghpur district, met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and described how the perpetrators of the heinous crime have evaded the police net for the last eight years. As it turned out, the case had been closed in the absence of evidence. Within days, the accused were arrested and two police officers whose lapses had led to the case being shut were immediately placed under suspension.
During a Biju Janata Dal-sponsored hartal in the recent past, a group of protestors intercepted a woman who was driving to her workplace in Bhubaneswar. She was jeered at and harassed for stepping out of home during the agitation. Soon a video of the incident went viral and the police were forced to track down the miscreants and book them within 24 hours. This would have gone unnoticed in another time but not on this day.
Such vigilance has not just found loopholes but also thrown up unsung heroes from the same flawed system we deal with every day. Omkar Hota, a young government doctor of Malkangiri district, could have ignored the frantic calls of a tribal villager when the latter’s wife went into labour pain. Instead, he reached the village on his bike and delivered the baby only to find that the woman had suffered haemorrhage and needed immediate hospitalisation.
When the superstitious tribal villagers refused to touch her, the doctor had every reason not to do what he did - trek 10 km of treacherous terrain on foot carrying the sick woman on his shoulders with help of the husband. Pictures of Hota carrying the woman on a cot reached the media and they went viral and were all over the Internet and the newspapers. For the doctor, it was a routine of sorts in the health care-starved district, and not many noticed his good Samaritan act until the media found what an extraordinary act it was. His service was duly recognised by the state government.
It is only prudent that in this age of media explosion, a government remains alert and ahead of the curve. The Naveen Patnaik government, by launching a social media-based public grievance monitoring system, has taken the right step to keep the administration accountable and responsible.
Srimoy Kar
Resident Editor, Odisha
Email: srimoy@newindianexpress.com