Vimukti Held Summit with the Journalists of Manvi Taluka

Selected journalists were honoured for their contribution to the Print Media

Like the common saying goes, there are three kinds of people: those who “make” things happen, those who “watch” things happen and those who “wonder” what happened. And though we would all like to believe that we fall into the first category, in terms of citizen participation most of us are very far from it. Often we are not touched by the things going on around us unless we become the part of it. Who is responsible for? It is not to blame someone but each one of us is part of it. The state of Journalism today is similar to that described by the Irish poet Edward Eggleston as “Organized gossip”. It reports everything that people would be interested in rather than everything they should know. The world of journalism has a major role to play in today’s context.

On18th of August 2013 Vimukti charitable institute invited the journalists from the Manvi Taluk. They were invited for a particular purpose, and the purpose was to make them realize their role in the society. Input sessions were held with regard to their contribution to the rural areas by highlighting the realities of life and making widely known to the society at large. The following issues were highlighted: There are many reasons for becoming a journalist and many type of journalists to become. It is a career with many challenges and rewards. Journalists must: Have an interest in the world around them, have an alert and ordered mind, be able to approach and question people, be polite but persistent. In many of the areas journalists have failed in this regard. There are harder realities of life of people which are not made known to the society, may be because of the lack of interest or for the sake of covering up the things which felt to be not so important.

The Citizens of rural areas experience a wide disparity in the quality of, and access to, infrastructure and services. While the urban elite and middle class enjoy 24 hour electricity and water supply through individual investment in generators, private wells, storage tanks etc. The urban poor are left to cope with frequent power cuts and intermittent or non-existent water supply. Overall, the lack of high quality infrastructure, security and services hinder the lives of common people. Journalists must seek researchers to review the practices and existing infrastructure in public offices and propose practical measures to achieve the goals of transparency, efficiency and freedom from corruption. Vimukti Director strongly suggested that there are numerous government schemes; due to lack of proper communication and publicity they are not reaching out to the beneficiaries as result handful of people who get these benefits. Vimukti is truly grateful to the journalist for their support to this institute. It was really enlightening experience to the journalists and 35 journalists who took part in this summit.