How PUWJ served journalists and their family members during COVID 19

 

By Prof Dr Kiran Thakur
Former PUWJ President &
Vishwakarma University
Centre of Communication for Development

Published on December 17 2020, Patrakar Sangh’s Foundation Day

Pune Patrakar Sangh was founded in 1940 with only a few members. They were mostly journalists known for their literary writing in Marathi. Some of them worked for the freedom for the country, some for social reforms. For the next several years, the organization was nearly dormant.  It became active when working journalists such as B R Vats in Delhi, T R Ramaswamy in Chennai and Madharao Sane in Pune were at the forefront of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists. In 1974 Gopalrao Krishna Patwardhan became President of the Pune Patrakar Sangh and was supported by me and Prakash Kardaley. That was a landmark year as the Sangh became Pune Shramik Patrakar Sangh (Pune Union of Working Journalists), a trade union of the employee journalists.

 

 I have been a witness to the evolution of the PUWJ into prominent a city organization that undertook numerous activities covering issues related to professional journalism, trade union matters, cultural, social and educational training was undertaken in increasing number. Patrakar Sahayyata Nidhi, blood donation and several other welfare activities were undertaken. Journalist organisations elsewhere in India may have organised such activities. But the PUWJ did something else that was unique in the country. Here are the details:

The Corona 19 had affected not only the general population but also the journalists in Pune and elsewhere. The members of (PUWJ) experienced the ill-effects of the pandemic. One Journalist, Pandurang Raykar, lost his life. On other days, several reporters and sub-editors were rushed to hospitals in different parts of the city. 

Many colleagues lost jobs because the newspaper owners reported that the newspapers had suffered heavily in their businesses, in circulation and advertisement revenue. The Number of pages were reduced, loss-making editions were closed, and several newspaper establishments were closed. Salaries of employees were slashed to around 50 per cent in the case of the newspaper establishments that managed to survive. The white-collared employees- the journalists - were unable to find alternative sources of income. There was gloom in every sector of the economy. The newspaper industry was no exception. 

Several members of the PUWJ and their families reported nervous breakdown. Many found it difficult to meet expenses for routine treatments. Several medicines were not available in the market. Some were sold in the black market at exorbitant prices.  

Oxygen was scarce. Ambulance services attached to private hospitals were expensive. Nurses and the paramilitary staff of the hospitals were overworked. 

In this all pervading gloom and desperation, the PUWJ tried to tackle the situation to help its journalists and their family members.

 Worked in unison

 PUWJ President Prasad Kulkarni says its office bearers and executive committee members worked in unison to tackle the situation. The goodwill and the credibility of the PUWJ came to the help of the organisation. As challenges cropped up one after another, solutions were found out without any loss of time.

For example, we realised that the experts in different medical fields, such as nervous breakdown, and trauma, were not available to our members and their families at affordable costs. Psychiatrists were required in some cases, he says.

Our journalist colleagues used their contacts with the Indian Medical Association to organise help in this area. Dr Sanjay Patil former president of Indian Medical Association, Pune pooled the experts to form an informal advisory board of specialists. They were available to the needy PUWJ members and their families. They ensured that the confidentiality of the patients was maintained.

Earlier in April, the PUWJ organised a Corona pre-testing. It tested oxygen levels, pulse and symptoms for Covid-19. Around 200 members participated. Only two people showed symptoms. 

The next tests were swab tests. Around 200 journalists participated. None of them tested positive. This was a major drive sponsored by PUWJ in collaboration with Pune Municipal Corporation with the initiative by Mayor Muralidhar, Sahyadri Hospital’s Dr Charu Apte and Puneet Balan group. 

As a measure to boost the immunity, dosages of Arsenic Album 30 were given to all members and their families. Around 400 members and their families took this medication. 

At one point, oxygen supply system for the patients was not easily  available in Pune at reasonable costs. When Mr Vikram Salunke of the Accurate Engineering came to know about it, he offered a set of the system. He arranged also to train a couple of tech-savvy journalists to use the system to during emergencies.

 Ambulance and other help

The PUWJ members came across instances where medical stores and private hospitals charged exorbitantly for remdesivir injection vials. These vials were considered useful for corona treatment. The PUWJ liaisoned with Mr Anil Belkar, the Secretary of Pune District Chemists Association for supply of vials and other pharmacy products at fair price and without delay.

Mr Vishwesh Kulkarni of Yashashwi Academy for Skills provided website development course at extremely discounted cost. Some of the members, who have lost the job, participated in this course. After successful completion, they have started, their own news websites.

Another major help the Patrakar Sangh began offering was the ambulance service. It was the period when the corona was at a peak. The number of patients in the city and district was rising every day. Beds and Hospitals were limited. There was panic in the city as the newspapers and television channels reported a number of deaths and an increasing number of patients. Ambulances and hearses were limited. They were hired to carry the patients and bodies to a long distance. With the result that the patients were kept waiting. There was heavy pressure on the state government’s 108 service for the ambulances. The 108 operators declined to provide their ambulances to ferry patients to private hospitals on arguing that the 108 was meant for emergencies faced by the government hospitals. This led to more panic, impatience, and bickering among these agencies and the affected people.

This created more panic among the patients and their relatives. Scores of families of journalists experienced such panic. This led to innovation to organise a service of an ambulance for journalists. That was unique, not thought of and successfully executed by any organisation of journalists in India, and perhaps outside the country.  In Pune, PUWJ organised the service with the support of the MVR Welfare Foundation. Its Head, Hematologist Dr Vijay Ramanan offered the ambulance belongs to MVR welfare foundation.

Shivsangram Sanghatana’s founder leader Vinayak Mete came forward to provide us an ambulance until the PUWJ members required it during the COVID 19. 

The youthful PUWJ office bearers had vowed not to seek and accept charity for any of our activities. Accordingly, they prevailed upon the Sanghatana leaders to accept at least Rs. 101.00 as a token for the payment for ambulance. 

The journalists in Pune would remain grateful to the PUWJ team for these facilities and services that can perhaps be quantified. There was something else that can not be quantified. The president, office-bearers and executive members risked their own health to run around to hospitals and doctors to organise these facilities and services to save the lives of members and their family members. 

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The teams that organized the help

 

Pune Shramik Patrakar Sangh Prasad Arun Kulkarni, President Abhijit Barbhai, Vice President Sukrut Mokashi, Vice President Chandrakant Hanchate, General Secretary Sunil Jagtap, treasurer Laxman More, secretary Vijay Mhaske, secretary Prashant Bidwe, member  Tanishqa Dongare, member Amol Kavithkar, member Sandeep Patil, member aja Gaikwad, member Sandeep Marathe, member Kuldeep Jadhav, member Shrishkumar Randive, member  Vijaykumar Kulkarni, member  Abhijit Bhise, member

Pune Patrakar Pratishthan Prakash Bhiote, President  Vitthal Jadhav, secretary Skurut Karandikar, treasurer Mahendra Badade, trustee  Yogesh Kuthe, trustee

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Authored by Kiran Thakur

drkiranthakur@gmail.com

 

Vishram Dhole awarded doctorate at Savitribai Phule Pune University

 I am delighted to inform you that my colleague Vishram V. Dhole, Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Communication Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University, has been awarded PhD recently. Following are the detail  

Title of the Thesis: 

      A Study of Hindi Film Songs from 1950 to 2010 as a Location of Popular Culture in India

Guide: Prof Ujjwala Barve, Head, Dep. of Communication and Journalism, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune 

research Centre:

Department of Communication and Journalism, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune

 Abstract:

Despite its existence since 1931, large scale production and an unquestionable centrality in popular culture in India, ‘Hindi film songs’ has remained a highly understudied area. Even the growing fields of film theories and cultural studies have only marginally dealt with its cinematic and cultural significance. The thin body of scholarly work about Hindi film music has focused mostly on assessment of its essential characteristics, style and historical development (Arnold, 1988, 1991) comparative context and technological platforms (Manuel, 1988, 1993) meaning construction and musical arrangement (Booth, 2008, 2011) and production, style, commercial life and reception (Morcom, 2007). The studies are informed by ethno- musicological or neo-Marxist perspectives and take up production, distribution and reception of Hindi film song as the central objects of analysis.

It is against this background that the study takes up the actual content of Hindi film songs as a location of popular culture. Since popular music is designed to reflect the continuous present tense of social-cultural life of a group, a study like this will help develop a macro view of what Ranade (2006) calls as the surface manifestation of contemporary cultural forces. The research first takes undertakes Content Analysis of 610 songs using the stratified random sampling from the population of more than 18000 ‘popular songs’ from 1950 to 2010 to study various generic & thematic elements of songs. As a part of the triangulation methodology, the study then carries out a detailed qualitative analysis Hindi film songs’ complex engagement with the forces of modernity and post-modernity. Using various issues and concepts, the study analyses the representation and framing of its central theme of engagement- Romantic love. It does so by focusing on three aspects- struggle & ubiquity of romantic love, its legitimization and, construction of romantic utopia. While romantic love represents the interior dimension of ‘modernity’, the study also analyses the exterior dimension of modernity through the re-presentation of ‘City’ in the songs. The study then takes up Hindi film songs’ engagement with two important markers of post-modern aesthetics- intertextuality and self-reflexivity. The analysis reveals the ways in which text production system of Hindi film songs relate with other text systems and its own past. The analysis helps to understand the growing influence of the post-modern aesthetics on Hindi film songs particularly from the 1990s.

 Besides finding out several aspects of generic and textual patterns of Hindi film songs from 1950s till date, the research also reveals Hindi film songs’ ambiguous relationship with the project of modernity. It shows that the song system is increasingly reflecting the post-modern values and aesthetics particularly from the 1990s. The idea of ‘Romantic love’, which dominates more than 70% of Hindi film songs, is a site of complex negotiation between ‘moral individualism’ of the modernity and the patriarchal forces of traditions. This large scale, long duration, empirically driven study of the text of Hindi film songs helps to understand a highly important site of popular culture in India and also reveals some contours of the Indian society’s engagement with the overarching meta-narratives of modernity and post-modernity.

Key Words: Hindi Film Songs, Songs as Genre, Modernity, Romantic Love, City, Inter-textuality, Self-reflexivity, Post Modernity, Content Analysis

 bout the Researcher:

Vishram Dhole works as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Communication Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU). He has twenty years of teaching experience at the post-graduate level. Before joining academics, he worked as a journalist with a leading Marathi newspaper Loksatta for nine years. As a journalist, he worked for the desk as well as reporting and, covered many important events and issues. He writes regularly for leading Marathi newspapers, periodicals and participates in panel discussions on news channels. He has written yearly columns for Marathi dailies Sakal (2008 & 2009), Loksatta (2012) and Lokmat (2013 & 2015). He has conceptualized, scripted and directed six documentaries on various social issues. It includes ‘Jaldindi’ on environmental issues, ‘Ranwata’ on the developmental work by Dr. Prakash Amte& his colleagues and, ‘Sahar’ and ‘Gumraah’ on development and security issues in Kashmir.  He has worked for several educational audio-visual programs at EMMRC and scripted more than ten radio programs for Pune station of All India Radio. He has designed and conducted training programs for senior editorial staff of leading media houses like ‘The Week’, ‘Lokmat’ and ‘Sakal’. He has also designed and conducted several training programs for the senior scientific and managerial staff of Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) for their communication and media related objectives. He has also worked as consultant for Opinion Polls carried out by Sakal during Lok Sabha, Maharashtra Assembly and Pune Municipal Elections. He also provides consultancy to Public Relation and Advertising agencies.

Contact:

Email: vishramdhole@gmail.com

 

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Ankit Kumar Singh awarded doctorate at BHU

I am delighted to inform you that  Mr Ankit Kumar Singh, a senior sports journalist now faculty at Pune-based Vishwakarma University, was last week awarded a doctorate at the Banaras Hindu Univerity.

He studied under Professor Sisir Basu at the BHU's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, 

Title of his study is A Study on the Symbolic Economy: Communication's Role, Challenges and Prospects in India. 

Currently Assistant Professor at Vishwakarma University's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Dr Ankit Kumar Singh  was a sub-editor and reporter with Hindustan Times (from April 2011 to July 2014 at Hindustan Times, Lucknow and from December 2017 to June 2019 at Hindustan Times, Mumbai). He has covered international cricket matches, IPL games, Women's ODIs, Ranji Trophy matches, Khelo India games and MRF Car Rally.

Synopsis of Dr Singh's thesis

INTRODUCTION

The Symbolic Economy, as a term, became popular following its use in Sharon Zukin’s path-breaking book, ‘The Cultures of Cities’, which was first published in 1995. Zukin, who happens to be a professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and the Graduate School, City University of New York, states that the Symbolic Economy refers to economic activities that concentrate on cultural production and consumption, such as those associated with Tourism, Media and Entertainment (TME). The concept of the Symbolic Economy marks a shift from the notions of the agrarian economy and the industrial economy which were in vogue earlier. Though agriculture and industry have remained at the heart of social structure, symbolic commodities have become the driving force of the economy around the world in the wake of an unprecedented growth in the field of information technology and media industry. 

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this study were to:

• examine the growth and total outlay of tourism from 1991 to 2015,
• analyse the growth and total outlay of media and entertainment from 1991 to 2015, 
• ascertain the role of communication in promoting these components of the Symbolic Economy; and
• study the challenges and prospects that these components (and also other components) of the Symbolic Economy offer in India.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Historical research method served as the research design for the study since the purpose of the dissertation was to examine the growth of a phenomenon over a period in a country.

Selection of Time Frame and Components

Since tourism, media and entertainment are considered chief factors fuelling the Symbolic Economy (Zukin, 95), the study focused on examining various facets of their growth in India between the period of 1991 and 2015. The period of 1991 was taken as a starting point for it was the year in which Indian economy was opened in the wake of the policy of economic liberalisation introduced by the then Congress government.

Issued to be studies by categories

Tourism	Media and Entertainment
·         Sector-wise growth and total outlay over the years ·         Contribution to GDP and employment ·         Communication strategies and policies used to fuel the growth of the industry ·         Challenges and prospects	·         Sector wise growth and total outlay over the years ·         Contribution to GDP and employment ·         Communication strategies and policies used to fuel the growth of the industry ·         Challenges and prospects

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

Growth and a total outlay of Tourism in India

Ø  The number of domestic tourist visits increased from 126.74 million in 1991 to 1431.97 million in 2015 and the number of Foreign Tourist Arrivals reached 80.27 lakh in 2015 from 16.77 lakh in 1991. The industry underwent significant growth during these years with its total market size reaching INR 8309.4 billion in 2015 which accounted for 7 per cent of the country’s total GDP.

Ø  By 2015, the industry gave jobs to 4.3 crore people, which was 8.7 per cent of total employment generated in the country.

Growth and total outlay of Media and Entertainment Industry (M&E) in India

Ø  The nine sectors (TV, Radio, Print, Films, Music, OOH, Digital Advertising, Animation & VFX, Online Gaming) that comprise M&E Industry in India witnessed significant growth during the period of the study. The total market size of the industry grew from INR 385 billion in 2005 to reach INR 1157 billion in 2015, registering a growth of 12.27 per cent on average over the years.

Ø  The M&E sector per se didn’t contribute much to the country’s GDP during the period of the study but its impact extended beyond direct revenues. There were multi-faceted economic implications of the industry on the overall economy. The core sectors generated jobs, wages, and output for the supplies, professionals, and contractors they relied on during the course of business.

Ø  As far as the employment generation was concerned, the industry accounted for 4.5 million jobs in 2015, besides playing a stellar role in creating additional jobs like the ones featuring electricians, spot boys, camera crew, media lawyers, etc. A point to remember here is that one job in the media industry is creating several other jobs in the country ranging from communication, electronics and service industry.

Role of communication in promotion of the components of the Symbolic Economy

Ø  The government of India launched several schemes like Hunar Se Rozgar, Visa on Arrival and various publicity strategies to give the tourism industry an impetus. These strategies underlined the effective use of communication strategies to promote the industry. A highlight of this analysis was bumping into nine niche tourism products that the Ministry of Tourism has identified and started promoting to turn India into a hub of niche tourism. These niche products are – cruise tourism, adventure tourism, medical tourism, wellness tourism, golf tourism, polo tourism, eco-tourism, film tourism, and tiger tourism.

Ø  The role of communication in the promotion of the M&E industry was examined through the prism of three parameters — production of symbols as basic commodities (example; reality shows  capitalising on people’s particular desire), the introduction of new design and style (example; the popularity of web streaming apps), and need creation and reinforcement (example; the growing popularity of skin care products).

Challenges and Prospects

Ø  The Indian tourism industry has grown by leaps and bounds but at world level, it’s still behind smaller countries like Italy and Malaysia; the study reveals. Some of the reasons hampering the industry’s growth have been—lack of proper infrastructure and skilled human resources; insufficient promotion and marketing; stringent tax policy; and security issues. However, in the near future, the industry is only going to get bigger.

Ø  The M&E industry has also witnessed tremendous growth over the years but is far from realising its full potential. While at the world level, the M&E sector contributes on average 2.6 per cent of a country’s GDP, in India the figure is quite low. One of the issues hampering the industry’s growth is the chasm that exists between rural and urban households in terms of daily internet consumption. However, things are only going to get brighter going ahead as the efforts to tap the rural un-connected consumers have already been started.  

Symbolic Economy of Religious Festivals

Ø  Apart from tourism, media and entertainment, which are well-established components of the Symbolic Economy, India has several cultural products that can be tapped to reap economic benefits in an organised way. Prominent among them is the case of religious festivals and folk cultural events like Durga Puja, Ganesh Chaturthi and Kumbha Mela.

Ø  According to a report from the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Durga Puja had a Rs 1,00,000 crore business in India in 2018 and is growing with almost 35 per cent CAGR. Similarly, the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi generated Rs 20,000 crore in 2018 with 20 per cent of CAGR in the states of Maharashtra and Telangana; and this year’s Kumbha Mela accounted for 1.2 lakh crore.

Ø  According to a report by Rajya Sabha, India celebrates 51 festivals in a year, with 17 of them being nationally recognised ones. If marketed well and organised with economic finesse, religious festivals can provide a boost to the country’s economy.

 

CONCLUSION

As evidenced by the findings of this study, post 1991 India have made stupendous strides in the field of tourism, media and entertainment which are considered three major components of the Symbolic Economy. Apart from them, there are also other cultural activities that have the potential of developing into a Symbolic Economy-driven brand in the same way Disney created its Symbolic Economy in the United States of America. The rise of the Symbolic Economy, though, is not minus a flip side. A society operating under the umbrella of the Symbolic Economy would always remain prone to isolation and chaos. Real emotions may take the backseat with plastic emotions taking the front seat to shape one’s behaviours and social conducts. All said and done, everything comes with a price and the Symbolic Economy is no different either.

13.12.2020