Tuesday, June 20, 2006

SURVEY OF THE SOCIAL PROFILE
OF THE KEY DECISION MAKERS IN THE NATIONAL MEDIA

By

Anil Chamaria, Feelance Journalist
Jitendra Kumar, Independent Researcher
Yogendra Yadav, Senior Fellow, CSDS

KEY FINDINGS

India's 'national' media lacks social diversity, it does not reflect
the country's social profile

Hindu upper caste men dominate the media. They are about 8 % of India's
population but among the key decision makers of the national media their
share is as high as 71 %.

Gender bias rules: only 17 % of the key decision makers are women.
Their representation is better in the English Electronic media (32 %).

Media's caste profile is equally unrepresentative. 'Twice born' Hindus
(dwijas comprising Brahmins, Kayasthas, Rajputs, Vaishyas and Khatris) are
about 16 % of India's population, but they are about 86 % among the key
media decision makers in this survey. Brahmins (including Bhumihars and
Tyagis) alone constitute 49% of the key media personnel.

Dalits and adivasis are conspicuous by their absence among the decision
makers. Not even one of the 315 key decision makers belonged to the
Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes.

The proportion of OBCs is abysmally low among the key decision makers
in the national media: they are only 4 % compared to their population of
around 40 % in the country.

Muslims are severely under-represented in the national media: they are
only 3 % among the key decision makers, compared to 13.4% in the country's
population.

Christians are proportionately represented in the media (mainly in the
English media): their share is about 4 per cent compared to their population
share of 2.3 %

Social groups that suffer 'double disadvantage' are also nearly absent
among the key decision makers: there are no women among the few OBC decision
makers and negligible backwards among the Muslims and Christians.

These findings are based on a survey of the social background of 315
key decision makers from 37 'national' media organizations (up to 10 key
decision makers from each organisation) based in Delhi. The survey was
carried out by volunteers of Media Study Group between 30 May and 3 June
2006.

The survey was designed and executed by Anil Chamaria, Feelance
Journalist, and Jitendra Kumar, Independent Researcher, from Media Study
Group and Yogendra Yadav, Senior Fellow, CSDS.

Survey methodology:

For this survey 40 'national' media organizations located in Delhi were
identified. These included all the major news papers, news magazines, radio
channels, television channels and news agencies that could be said to have a
national spread. Of these information could be obtained about 37
organizations. For this purpose different publications or channels of the
same media house have been treated as different organizations.
For each of these organizations we sought information on the top 10 'key
decision makers' who matter in deciding the news and editorial policy of the
organization. For each of these persons thus identified, information was
collected on their social profile in terms of their gender, age, religion,
caste/community, mother tongue and state of domicile. The information was
available for 315 key decision makers. This was gathered by a group of
volunteers of the Media Study Group. Since the information was gathered not
by face-to-face interview but by speaking to colleagues and other
informants, the data here may contain some errors.

SUMMARY TABLES

Gender Profile

Men Women

Print Hindi 86 % 14 %
Print English 84 % 16 %
Electronic Hindi 89 % 11 %
Electronic English 68 % 32 %
All 83 % 17 %



Hindu Muslim Christian Sikh

Share in India's population 81 % 13 % 2 % 2 %
Print Hindi 97 % 2 % 0 % 0%
Print English 90 % 3 % 4 % 0%
Electronic Hindi 90 % 6 % 1 % 0%
Electronic English 85 % 0 % 13 % 2 %
All 90 % 3 % 4 % 1 %

Caste-community profile
Brahmin Kayastha Vaishya/Jain Rajput Khatri Non dwija uppercaste OBC
Print Hindi 59 % 9 % 11 % 8 % 5 % 0 8 %
Print English 44 % 18 % 5 % 1 % 17 % 5 % 1 %
Electronic Hindi 49 % 13 % 8 % 14 % 4 % 0% 4 %
Electronic English 52 % 13 % 2 % 4 % 4 % 4 % 4 %
All 49 % 14 % 7 % 7 % 9 % 2 % 4 %

Caste-Community profile compared to population share
Caste/community group
Share in India's population
Share in key media personnel

'Twice born' Hindus (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, others) 16 % 85 %
'Intermediary' Hindu castes (Jat, Reddy, Maratha, Patel, etc.) 8 % 3%

Hindu OBC
34 %
4 %
Muslim

13 % 4 %
Christian

2 % 3 %
Sikhs

2 % 1 %
SC

16 % 0 %
ST

8 % 0 %

Note: Figures for population share are based on Census of India 2001 and
estimates generated by National Election Study 2004 of CSDS.


Share of Hindu upper caste men
Share in population 8 %
Share in key decision makers in the media 71 %

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

वैसे तो इस तरह की घटिया मानसिकता पर प्रतिक्रिया देना उसे बढ़ावा देना जैसा ही है। लेकिन फिर भी मैं एक बात कहना चाहता हूं कि जिन स्वयंभू मीडिया आलोचकों ने ये सर्वे किया है, वो खुद ही दरअसल फ्लॉप और आउटडेटेड पत्रकार हैं। यहां वहां मीडिया के नाम पर अपनी कोई दुकान खोलकर रोटीरोटी चला रहे हैं। आप ऐसा करें, इसमें कोई बुराई नहीं है, लेकिन जाति के चश्मे से इस तरह मीडिया को ना देखें। मैंने देश के सबसे प्रतिष्ठित पत्रकारिता संस्थान आईआईएमसी पढ़ाई की थी। वहां एससी, एसटी और ओबीसी के लिए 50 फीसदी आरक्षण है। मैं सिर्फ अपने बैच की बात करूं तो एससी-एसटी कोटे की 7 सीटें खाली रह गईं। क्लास में एससी-एसटी कोटे के जितने भी छात्र थे वो कभी आम छात्रों से घुल मिल नहीं सके। (ये आरक्षित मानसिकता का अलगाव है) आज मैं उनमें से एक को छोड़कर बाकी किसी को कहीं भी नहीं पाता हूं। जिस एक की मैं बात कर रहा हूं वो मेहनती और प्रतिभावान था आगे बढ़ता गया। उसे भी उतनी ही रुकावटें झेलनी पड़ीं, जितना किसी आम छात्र को होती हैं। अपने एक एससी साथी को मैंने अपने दफ्तर में बॉस से कह कर नौकरी लगवाई। लेकिन कुछ दिन में ही उसकी पोल खुल गई। आप कथित दलित बुद्धिजीवी कभी ये क्यों नहीं सोचते कि योग्यता भी कोई पैमाना होती है। जिस एससी छात्र में योग्यता थी वो आगे बढ़ता गया और आज वो खुद मुझसे भी ज्यादा पैसे और पद पर है। मैं मानता हूं कि मीडिया में अयोग्य अगड़ों से भरी पड़ी है। लेकिन ये कोई आधार नहीं हो सकता। बात फिर भी योग्यता अयोग्यता की है। जो अयोग्य अगड़े मीडिया में जमे बैठे हैं वो या तो अफसर बन गए (ताकि काम ना करना पड़े) या फिर कुत्तों की औकात तक सिमटकर रह गए। जाति और धर्म के बैलेंस से ज्यादा जरूरी है समझदारी। वरना आप लोग टकराव को बढ़वा देने से ज्यादा कुछ और नहीं कर रहे। ऐसे में समाज को आप से भी खतरा है।

6:14 PM
Hyderabadi guy said...

THE HISTORY OF MAJLIS ITTEHADUL MUSLIMEEN PARTY IN HYDERABAD

The grip of the Majlis-e-ittehadul Muslimeen on the community remains strong, With a Member representing Hyderabad in the Lok Sabha, five members in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, 40 corporators in Hyderabad and 95-plus members elected to various municipal bodies in Andhra Pradesh, the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen is one of the foremost representatives of the city’s Muslims and the most powerful Muslim party in India and one can see the partys strenghth if it goes to Hyderabad old city and Parts of Muslim Dominated Villages of Andhra Pradesh everywhere u look u can see MIM written on walls ,lightpoles and buildings leaving aside green flags and posters of its Leadership and there small Offices . The Majlis has brought lot of development to the Old part of the city even after it is said it hasnt done anything by its opponents who are mostly Ex Majlis workers.The Majlis was formed in 1927 “for educational and social uplift of Muslims”. But it articulated the position that “the ruler and throne (Nizam) are symbols of the political and cultural rights of the Muslim community… (and) this status must continue forever”.The Majlis pitted itself against the Andhra Mahasabha and the communists who questioned the feudal order that sustained the Nizam’s rule. It also bitterly opposed the Arya Samaj, which gave social and cultural expression to the aspirations of the urban Hindu population in the Hyderabad State of those days.By the mid-1940s, the Majlis had come to represent a remarkably aggressive and violent face of Muslim communal politics as it organised the razakars (volunteers) to defend the “independence” of this “Muslim” State from merger with the Indian Union.According to historians, over 1,50,000 such `volunteers’ were organised by the Majlis for the Nizam State’s defence but they are remembered for unleashing unparalleled violence against Communal Hindus and the communists and all those who opposed the Nizam’s “go it alone” policy. It is estimated that during the height of the razakar `agitation’, over 30,000 people had taken shelter in the Secunderabad cantonment alone to protect themselves from these `volunteers’.But the razakars could do little against the Indian Army and even put up a fight. Kasim Rizvi, the Majlis leader, was imprisoned and the organisation banned in 1948. Rizvi was released in 1957 on the undertaking that he would leave for Pakistan in 48 hours. Before he left though, Rizvi met some of the erstwhile activists of the Majlis and passed on the presidentship to Abdul Wahed Owaisi, a famous lawyer and an Islamic scholar from jamia nizamia who also was jailed for nearly 10 months after he took over the Majlis leadership as the then govt wanted to abolish the Majlis party but Owaisi refused to do so and was seen as a person who had financially supported the party when it was a bankrupt and weak one after the Police Action in Hyderabad State.Owaisi is credited with having “re-written” the Majlis constitution according to the provisions of the Indian Constitution and “the realities of Muslim minority in independent India”, and fought the legal case for winning back darrusslam mim headquarters for years according to a former journalist, Chander Srivastava. For the first decade-and-a-half after this “reinvention”, the Majlis remained, at best, a marginal player in Hyderabad politics and even though every election saw a rise in its vote share, it could not win more than one Assembly seat.The 1970s saw an upswing in Majlis’ political fortunes. In 1969, it won back its party headquarters, Dar-us-Salaam — a sprawling 4.5-acre compound in the heart of the New City. It also won compensation which was used to set up an ITI on the premises and a women’s degree college in Nizamabad town. In 1976, Salahuddin Owaisi took over the presidentship of the Majlis after his father’s demise who also was also Jailed Various times .This started an important phase in the history of the Majlis as it continued expanding its educational institutions,Hospitals,Banks, including the first Muslim minority Engineering College and Medical College. Courses in MBA, MCA ,Nursing, Pharmacy and other professional degrees followed and now a daily newspaper known as Etemaad Daily. The 1970s were also a watershed in Majlis’ history as after a long period of 31 years, Hyderabad witnessed large-scale communal rioting in 1979. The Majlis came to the forefront in “defending” Muslim life and property Majlis workers could be seen at these moments defending the properties of Muslims in the wake of riots and these workers were very hard even for the police to control them even now it is a known fact that there are nearly about 2500 units of strong members who only act if there is a seirous threat to the Owaisi family and these members are under the direct orders of the Owaisi family which leads the Majlis party leaving aside thousands of workers and informers throughout the State and even outside the country far away till America and the Gulf countries.Salahuddin Owaisi, also known as “Salar-e-Millat” (commander of the community), has repeatedly alleged in his speeches that the Indian state has “abandoned” the Muslims to their fate. Therefore, “Muslims should stand on their own feet, rather than look to the State for help'’, he argues.This policy has been an unambiguous success in leveraging the Majlis today to its position of being practically the “sole spokesman” of the Muslims in Hyderabad and its environs.Voting figures show this clearly. From 58,000 votes in the 1962 Lok Sabha elections for the Hyderabad seat, Majlis votes rose to 1,12,000 in 1980. The clear articulation of this “stand on one’s feet” policy in education and `protection’ during riots doubled its vote-share by 1984. Salahuddin Owaisi won the seat for the first time, polling 2.22 lakh votes. This vote-share doubled in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections to over four lakhs.The Majlis has since continued its hold on the Hyderabad seat winning about five-and-a-half lakh votes each time.Despite remarkable economic prosperity and negligible communal violence in the past decade, the hold of the Majlis on the Muslims of Hyderabad remains, despite minor dents. And despite widespread allegations of Majlis leaders having “made money”, most ordinary Muslims continue to support them because, as one bank executive put it “they represent our issues clearly and unambiguously'’. An old Historian Bakhtiyar khan says the Owaisi family was a rich family even before entering Politics and he says he had seen the late Majlis leader Abdul Wahed Owaisi in an American Buick car at a time when rarely cars were seen on Hyderabad Roads and the family had strong relations with the ersthwhile Nizams of Hyderabad and the Paighs even now the family is considered to be one of the richest familes in Hyderabad.A university teacher says that the Majlis helped Muslims live with dignity and security at a time when they were under attack and even took the fear out of them after the Police action and adds that he has seen Majlis leaders in the front at times confronting with the Police and the Govt. Asaduddin Owaisi, the articulate UK educated barrister from Lincolns Inn College son of Salahuddin Owaisi and Former leader of the Majlis’ Legislature party and now an MP himself who has travelled across the globe meeting world leaders and organizatons and even in war zones compares the Majlis to the Black Power movement of America.The Majlis that emerged after 1957 is a completely different entity from its pre-independence edition, he says adding that comparisons with that bloody past are “misleading and mischievous”. “That Majlis was fighting for state power, while we have no such ambitions or illusions”.He stoutly defends the need for “an independent political voice” for the minorities, which is willing to defend them and project their issues “firmly”.“How can an independent articulation of minority interests and aspirations be termed communal,” he asks and contests any definition of democracy which questions the loyalty of minorities if they assert their independent political identity. “We are a threat not only to the BJP and Hindu communalism, but also to Muslim extremism,” Asaduddin claims. “By providing a legitimate political vent for Muslims to voice their aspirations and fears, we are preventing the rise of political extremism and religious obscurantism when the community is under unprecedented attack from Hindu communalists and the state'’. He can be seen in his speeches speaking against terrorism in the Country and says if the time arises Majlis will stand side by side in defending the Nation and Recently Majlis ittehadul Muslimeen MP Asaduddin Owaisi has Visited Lebanon after the war with israel and met the leaders of the resistance group Hezbollah and he has even visited Bombay and Malegaon Muslims and raised there issues in Parliament and has even represented the police torture victims to the Prime Minister and has given aid From Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen Party Fund.

6:02 AM

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