The Fourth Estate . . . Quo Vadis

It was quite surprising that Mr. Shashi Tharoor was again on centre-stage all over in almost all media circles yesterday night. The reason . . . he had posted something on Twitter regarding the Delhi rape victim. 

Yesterday night, the way the story was reported, showcased Mr. Tharoor as an uninformed ignorant person with ulterior motive. However today morning, with the family having obviously given it's consent for the same, most of the newspapers have backtracked and have been sort of commending the idea. This is a good article on how the media handled this. 

The whole incident shows how thoughtless are our media and politicians. We under-estimate the capability of a person who was an illustrious diplomat and was in the running for the UN Secretary General whereas we are ready to accept statements of people who end up apologising most of the time that they were misquoted. We would rather get along with people who would state what we want to hear rather than hear someone who talks from one's heart with conviction. 

And the media just waits to pounce on things. Everyone wants masala so that their viewers or readers would increase. The number of newspapers and news channels who publish real news are on the constant decline. 

Well, it's not in the national scenario that media does not behave with responsibility. 

In my routine clinical practice, it is quite often that I hear about patients threatening to call the 'patrakar' (the local journalist). I ask them to go ahead. During my first year here, there were few who tried to publish news against the hospital. However, when I convinced the local patrakars that they could end up in serious trouble if they published baseless news, they've left me alone. 

One of the common practices in this part of the country is 'paid-news'. If you run an NGO, it is very common for you to call the 'patrakar' and give him a 'baksheesh'. The prominence, the news about your program will command is directly proportional to how much you pay. 

I made a conscious effort to ensure that these guys are not called when we have big programs in the hospital. However, there is one problem. When we call some of the big shots in the government or administration, they usually ask where the patrakar is? I politely tell them that we usually don't invite the patrakar separately. However, they end up calling them up and they usually rush to cover the event. 

Even, with this Delhi rape case . . . although I'm quite encouraged by the protests it could muster and the awareness people got after the media coverage. I wonder .. .. .. is it that we never had molestation against women? In fact, 2 young men (Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandes) were killed in Mumbai when they went to protest against a young lady being molested. To make matters worse, I read that there were about 25 cases of reported molestations against women since the Delhi rape all over the country. However, you were not interested in following them the same way you reported this particular incident. 

My dear friends . . . in the light of such incidents and experiences that we've had with the media, I propose that nobody of us believe much on what they say and publish. 

And my friends in the media . . . there is something called ethics which you need to follow. Please remember that you are not the rule enforcers or the judiciary. Your role is to report what happened . . . and not to report what you think should/would have happened . . . or not to report what you are paid to report. 

And please do remember . . . there is another India, news about which does not make find many takers. Hope you remember the Banwari Devi case. I wonder why much fuss was not made for that poor lady. There are many more which go unreported . . . 

Hope that you would be a voice for the voiceless rather than an amplifier which decides when to switch itself on or how loud and clear one should sound. 

Wish you'll report with sense and responsibility in 2013. Happy New Year . . . 

Murder of the voiceless - abortions in rural India

I just finished counseling a 22 year old lady who we unwittingly diagnosed to be pregnant. She is not yet married, but has a boyfriend. She came yesterday with features which were very suggestive of an early pregnancy with a severe urinary tract infection.

We had repeatedly asked her if there was a chance of her being pregnant and she had vehemently denied of any possibility. Today morning, Nandamani who reviewed her for a vague discomfort of the lower abdomen took her in for ultrasound and found her to have a 7 week fetus. Not an uncommon event in many hospitals.

Nandamani called me in to deal with the crisis. The girl was already in tears and then confided that she had sexual relations with her boyfriend about couple of months back and she had never thought that it could end up such. Very familiar statements for me and Nandu. We get to hear it almost every month.

The issue was on how to deal with it. The girl had a very easy solution. 'I'll abort it'. After sometime we talked with the boy over the phone and he was also very cool about taking a decision to abort. I was very uncomfortable about how fast they had made such a decision.

'Murder planned so easily. Not a hint of remorse in the young voices.'

I know I'll face the brunt of many by making such a statement. The institution of marriage is breaking all over the world. Questions are being asked about the very fabric of it's institution.

However, what I'm more concerned is the cold blooded killing of the unborn. The unborn are most probably the most voiceless of all the people in this world. Recently, I read an article in 'The Hindu' which has put it quite well.

As told by the Dr Ronald, it is very common to see girl babies being killed all over the country. However, the killing of the innocents for sexual freedom is not something which is prevalent only in the West. It is very much present even in remote areas of third world countries such as ours.

The girl is an adult. She took the decision not to tell about the pregnancy to her parents. After a whole lot of counselling, she has still decided to go ahead with the abortion. Tomorrow, the boy has promised to come. Kindly pray that I can convince them to go ahead and have the baby.

However, as I pen this, I'm very much aware of the umpteen number of abortions which take place in very unhealthy and unsterile environments all over the world and more in rural areas of Asia and Africa which is a major challenge to maternal healthcare. There are no easy answers but to kill off unborn babies without any reservations is not the best choice.