The power of rural reporting

When rural reporter Nazam Din Mir wrote the story of four siblings — aged three to 16 — who suffered serious disabilities after an unexploded bomb detonated where they were playing near their home in Noonabandi village, close to the Pakistan border in Poonch district, he did not realise the help he was rendering the family.

Shaheen, the eldest, lost an eye and one hand had to be amputated. Zaheen, 6, suffered extensive damage to her left eye. The family could not bear the medical expenses despite selling off agricultural land. But when Mir’s story appeared in English, Hindi and Urdu, the government and civil society got into action and provided medical help to the victims. Shaheen is now undergoing eye treatment and is determined to sit for her Class 10 exam. She also gets a disability pension.

Rural reporting had the same kind of effect yet again when young writer Basheer Ahmed Peer drew the attention of the world to the harrowing experience of the people of Shumaryal village in Kupwara who were daily forced to cross a makeshift bridge of tree logs and wooden planks.

During floods, crossing this bridge became that much riskier for school-going children, as well as the elderly population. Peer’s story spurred the State government to build a proper bridge, making life so much easier for the villagers.

Though space for stories from the hinterland are shrinking in the mainstream media, some organisations have bucked the trend and made a dent with articles portraying the ground realities of village India.

Charkha is one such organisation. Set up 20 years ago by Sanjoy Ghose, a social activist who was killed by the ULFA in 1997, it dedicated itself to training rural reporters to write for the regional and national media. It held rural communication workshops and granted micro-fellowships to promising writers, honed their skills, and helped push their narratives into mainstream media.

One of the reports was about Upper Murrah, an isolated hamlet in the Peer Panjal range in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir. At Laadian, between Kalaali and Upper Murrah, there were two concrete pillars but no bridge. Many people, especially children, lost their lives in flash floods while crossing the river.

Charkha ensured that articles on the forgotten bridge reached publications in Urdu, Hindi and English in the State and national media. With follow-up at the local administration, the bridge was at last completed.

Other rural reports have also led to schools and toilets being constructed where there was none. Widows who were reduced to begging have got their pension and supply of medicines to a remote public health centre in Salotree, in Poonch, was restored. At Manghar village of Poonch district, where many lives were lost due to lack of transport, Bashart ul Haque’s article fetched an ambulance service to the region. That’s the kind of empowerment rural journalism is making possible!

The writer is a senior journalist based in New Delhi

COMMENT NOW