Sravani Sarkar
NewsBits.in
Bhopal: Developmental process is askew even 70 years after independence with a yawning gap developed between haves and have-nots.
And one of the biggest concerns is that media is increasingly faltering in its duty of mirroring this incongruity in society, experts and participants at a three-day media conclave convened by advocacy NGO Vikas Samvad concluded.
The conclave organized at Kanha in Mandla on eve of 70th Independence Day saw participation of over 100 journalists, subject experts and social activists from across the country. The theme of the conclave suitably was ‘development in independent India’.
After thoroughly discussing the issue from various angles including economic development, environmental concerns, agricultural scenario, judiciary and democracy, social environment, co-existence, health issues and role of media, the participants unanimously concluded that development course of the country had gone awry.
Among the prominent speakers included luminaries like lawyer Prashant Bhushan, agriculture expert and journalist Devinder Sharma, deputy director general of Centre for Science and Environment Chandra Bhushan, senior journalists like Arvind Mohan, Girish Upadhayay, Arun Tripathi, Annu Anand apart from a host of other active journalists and social workers.
Several young journalists and journalism students also attended the conclave.
It was agreed upon that the socio-economic disparity had increased to an alarming level and during the past few years the scenario had taken a worse turn that was threatening even the diverse socio-cultural fabric of the country.
The participants were unanimous in saying that there was a need to hold serious parleys for course correction by deciding upon the right kind of development in context of the country and finding the way for implementing it.
Being a media conclave the role of media and the current state of affairs of journalism came in for lengthy discussion. Here too, it was agreed upon that during past few years the media sector had undergone major change with space for developmental and critique-based journalism shrinking in the mainstream media.
Though alternative media has started taking roots, it is still on shaky grounds, mainly because of failure of solid support system.
Also factors such as lack of knowledge quest and inquisitiveness as well as story telling skills among journalists were underlined as points of concern hindering presentation of true picture in the country.
A need to discuss the issue in-depth and find ways of intervention was underlined.
Sachin Jain, Rakesh Diwan and Rakesh Malviya of Vikas Samvad and senior activist Chinmay Mishra were instrumental in successful organization of the conclave.
