Calling Kashmiri women, Big Media needs you

Practically none of the debates about Kashmir yesterday had women panellists. What gives?

WrittenBy:Manisha Pande
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Yesterday, while watching the primetime debates, we felt hope wither and faith crumble. Over the past four-odd years, particularly since the Delhi gang rape of 2012, there’s been a concerted effort from television news to report on women’s issues and talk about gender sensitivity.

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Motivated by possible surges in ratings as these initiatives may be — after all, ‘Nirbhaya’ has since become a catchphrase of sorts — the silver lining is that there has been relatively better representation of women in mainstream media.

So, imagine our dismay when we turned on the television yesterday and saw this:

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A sea of men – young, middle-aged, old and senile.

Yesterday, all primetime news trained their focus on the unrest in Kashmir (understandably). Times NowNDTVIndia TodayNewsXZee News and CNN-News18 had all invited panels to debate the issue. Yet all we heard were the same arguments about men who were in the Army, men who were being killed; all being uttered by men in studios.

Even a cursory Google search will throw ample of examples to illustrate how Kashmiri women are among the worst sufferers of the conflict in the Valley. In fact, a 2015 survey tells us that the conflict has affected all dimensions of women’s lives in Kashmir. Not just in Kashmir, effects of conflict across the world are felt hardest by women and children. Yet as far as yesterday’s television debates were concerned, this demographic can be summed up and dismissed in throwaway lines about who the victims of terrorism are.

Also, let’s not omit that the Jammu and Kashmir police force has women officers. A news report in Greater Kashmir stated that the J&K police is set to have more female recruits to deal with women protesters. So, there are women on both sides of the conflict. Yet we haven’t heard any of these voices. Panels on primetime television remain dominated by men. And this is not just about Kashmir, when it comes to border skirmishes, girls, evidently, can’t talk war.

(Note for trolls: Be more ingenious than suggesting we want to see Asiya Andrabi on prime time.)

Yesterday, the two solitary female presences were those of journalist Shammi Baweja on Barkha Dutt’s The Buck Stops Here and lawyer Shabnam Lone on CNN-News18. Countering Sambit Patra, though, meant that Lone was a mere counter-voice to the BJP spokesperson, who not only thought the programme was a good occasion to sneak in puns about “terrorising” people into silence, but also equated Wani with Dawood Ibrahim. Under the circumstances, Lone had practically no opportunity to present the side of Kashmiri women and neither did anchor Bhupendra Chaubey guide the conversation in that direction.

It’s not even as though the news channels don’t have grounds to involve the ‘other’ gender. One of the people killed in the violence is a teenaged girl.

Gaurav Sawant on his show on India Today had invited Left leader Kavita Krishnan, though we wouldn’t like to count that as a meaningful representation of Kashmiri women since first of all, Krishnan is not Kashmiri. Also, most of the time was spent discussing her “Maoist” leanings.

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The show was a shining example of lack of imagination in primetime TV.

We have said this before and can’t say this enough: gender representation is key if we are to achieve meaningful discourse on so-called burning issues. The question is when will Big Media get serious about it.

The author can be contacted at manisha.pande1110@gmail.com and on Twitter @MnshaP

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