Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air. - Henry Anatole Grunwald
I came across this quote and it set me thinking as to how relevant the quote is. “Signs of horror” set me into thinking about the emerging trend in journalism-campaign journalism or citizen journalism. Campaign journalism hopes to make press more relevant to people as citizens. In the age of social networking and the emergence of technologies connecting to any person in any part of the world is much easier. There is Facebook, twitter –nouns which have now turned into verbs. We have mails, group chat, video chat so on and so forth which make it so much smoother to connect to people.
And hence, as a result, campaigning is the new trend. Be it against an issue-like the campaign organised by Kiran Bedi “India against corruption” or be it for certain individuals like in the case of arushi talwar or Jessica lal case.
The only point to be noted or the only question to be asked is whether a particular campaign is after all campaigning for the right issue. The justice for arushi campaign had a major flaw, hemraj who was found dead along with arushi, had no human rights activists fighting justice for him. And the judgment was already made by the public, so said the media. That arushi’s parents were the ones to be blamed. And the reaction by udhav sharma cannot be termed as right always.
Campaigns have risen in number now, majorly because of the technology. And also because of that movie like “no one killed Jessica”, RDB are made.
India shining, teach india campaign are some of the campaigns that have found popularity. Not to mention jago grahak jago, a programme for consumer awareness which earlier wasn’t present.
N. Ram, the editor of The Hindu, was reported as “stressing the need for the media to play an important “agenda-building role” to stamp out social evils such as child labour, Mr. Ram said he was pained at the present trend in the media, more pronouncedly in the electronic media, of “propaganda and campaign journalism” where a reporter was required to give “snap judgments” on all kinds of issues without knowing anything about the subject and the anchor person asking all sorts of questions. Such careless treatment of important issues by the media which was expected to shape the opinion of the masses could not be taken lightly"
it is very crucial for a campaign to be for a right cause. but then again, right and wrong is a relative term.

Recently i read a news item in TOI about how teenagers are losing their virginity at the age of 17.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/man-woman/Virginity-lost-it-yet/articleshow/6119246.cms

I was reminded of Khushboo's comment while reading this and hence i decided to talk to my parents about pre marital sex.

This was the first time I had a talk about pre marital sex with my parents. As expected, my parents completely opposed the idea of pre marital sex. When asked why, my father said “you have a certain background and certain morals. Pre marital sex is ‘unholy’.” What made it funnier was my father hardly was vocal with the word “sex”. He stopped at pre marital! That is it! I was to assume it was about sex.

I, of course, as a teenager with active hormones, reacted strongly to this. Firstly, is sex the deciding factor of one’s morals? Would having sex before marriage make you “unworthy” of living in the society? As for that matter, is the ‘society’ supposed to know when I am having sex???

My parents were shocked goes without saying. They hadn’t expected this coming from me. They said I was raised as a good daughter. Hence I wasn’t supposed to have sex before marriage. Again, needless to say, I refuted. Then there emerged a fight, which then resulted with me being shouted at.
V
irginity, especially of a girl’s, is highly overrated. Girls are expected to behave in a certain way that again is decided by the ‘society’ around us. Drinking, smoking, drugs and sex apparently is tailor made for men. But if a woman enters the “restricted area”, she is termed as ‘characterless’, while a man is given leverage, only because he is a man, which again is none of his achievements.

While reading more about the same on the net, I read a comment by an activist. She had lived in England for nearly 30 years. And now when she is back in India, she finds India a lot changed and that too for good. She finds that youngsters are more pragmatic and very well aware of what they are indulging into.

I tried to reiterate the same to my parents. I am a 19 year old, legally allowed to indulge in sexual activities. Why then can I not have sex before marriage? Who are the so called “moral police” who decide what I should do in my personal life? What happens in my bedroom is nobody’s business. The “society” has no right to judge me. In fact nobody has the right to judge me. And even if I do indulge in sex, why would I proclaim it?

Moreover, is being a “good’ daughter only about getting married and have sex with a man whom you have never seen in your entire life and your parents point out him to you? And you have no option but to say yes!! Isn’t that a mellowed form of prostitution? The only difference being that it is recognized by the society?

What I cannot fathom is why sex is such a big taboo? Why is marriage seen as the license to have sex? Shouldn’t it be my decision whether I want to indulge in a no-strings attached sex or an emotional love making with a man?

From The Womb

Shriveled and tiny, I lay in the dark region
It wasn’t long that I had been there
I knew my mother, I knew my father
I knew the fact that they didn’t bother
They didn’t want me,
So they planned to kill me.

I could feel my mother’s anxiety,
I hated myself,
Why, oh, why
Why am I a girl?
I am not wanted,
I am not loved,
Nobody is anxious to receive me,
Like God had promised me
“My child, I am sending you to earth,
To a place where you will live long,
To two beautiful parents who will hold you tightly,
You will bring them utmost joy, and love and happiness
You will be theirs.”

I had jumped with joy,
Anticipating about my life,
About my parents,
But here I am,
Not able to speak out,
That I love them both,
I wouldn’t bring them grief
I would always keep them happy

But I couldn’t speak
I just lay there,
Helpless,
I knew I am not going to be born.
My mother told me that night
“My love you are always,
I am sorry I am doing this to you
But my daughter, you will live always in my heart.”

And that was the last time I heard her voice,
I experienced a seething pain,
I wanted to hold on to my mother
But couldn’t,
The place where I was
Just turned more darker,
And I couldn’t see anything.
Again.

Since i have always wanted to enter politics, it'd be great if i get to become the prime minister of india.

on independence day, i would like to do a Toy Giving Day, just like i did in my college. i would declare the day as a national holiday in every sense. no one would work that day.

it would be a day to sit back and relax.

Also, on the very same day i would promote the concept of Community Growth.

While reading on the net about family planning, i found this article written by a Mr.Kalyani-I would like to cite the reference of late Mr.Ranganath Dhondu Karve,son of late Mr.Dhondu Keshav Karve, Late Mr.Dhondo Keshav Karve, was given the kitab of "Maharshi". He was the pioneer of widow marriages in India. Late Mr.D.K.Karve, had married a widow for which he was otracised by the brahmin community of his native village when he visited his village in konkana region in Maharashtra. He was the father of Mr.R.D.Karve, who was the pioneer of Family Planning in India.

Mr.R.D.Karve, and his wife remained childless throughout their whole life and he used to publish a marathi weekly in which the problem of population growth was being discussed for the first time in India. Mr.R.D.Karve was working as professor at Wilson College,Mumbai. He was harassed for his bold views on population growth, he was made to resign from his service on the allegations of writing and publishing pornographic literature (his weekly) which should not be read by people publicly. Actually he was not publishing pornographic literature, he was just discussing issues related to gynacology, health problems of men and women due to excessive growth of population.

His marathi weekly was read by the people in hiding and only at night time with the use of lantern light. All those people were lucky who grasped the idea of keeping a curb on population. Such was the sorry state of affairs about the spread of knowledge on the problem of population growth.

The national leaders like late Mr.Neharu,first P.M.of India too opposed the idea of family planning. Late Mr.Narsimha Rao, ex-P.M.of India too was the opponent of family planning.

It is due to shortsighted views of above referred leaders the idea of family planning was never accepted willingly at the Govt.level in India. When the idea of family planning was being accepted after the year 1965 at the govt.level it was too late. All this was the history behind the population problem in India.

Had the idea of family planning been accepted during the pre-independence era of british raj,then the indian population would not have exceeded 50 crores today, and we would have been living a very lavish and rich lifestyle like a developed country on all fronts.

Actually the excessive population is a problem being faced in almost all countries in asian continent. China, India, Japan, all the countries in south east asian region. The sell of medicines having aphrodisiac properties is a big business in asian countries.

There are many schemes sponsored and funded by health department of govt.at the centre and state level. It is necessary to educate the illiterate mass of the India to grasp the idea of keeping a curb on population growth.

Late Mr.Sanjay Gandhi, son of ex-P.M.late Mrs.Indira Gandhi was of the view that the family planning should be forced on the poor masses in India.

India is an agrarian country where over 60% of the population indulges in agricultural work. Surprisingly, the recent turn of events has been such that farmers are committing suicide because of utter poverty.

Agriculture extension is scientific research and new knowledge to agricultural practices through farmer education. The field of extension encompasses a wider range of communication and learning activities organized for rural people by professionals from different disciplines, including agriculture, agricultural marketing, health, and business studies.

Advice and assistance to farmers to help them improve their methods of production and marketing is conventionally called agricultural extension. Historically, it has often been seen only in terms of increasing agricultural output. However, extension is a part of overall effort to achieve a balance between the productive and the social, environmental, and economic development of rural areas.

It requires methods such as experimental learning and farmer-to-farmer exchanges. Knowledge is gained through interactive processes and the participants are encouraged to make their own decisions. The National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management is an apex national institute set under the Ministry of Agriculture.


There exists a gap between the needs of the farmers and the technology. They aren’t updated about the technological inventions that may help them to have a better harvest.



Now to promote the concept of agriculture extension, Ministry of Agriculture has taken initiative to sponsor Mass Media Support to Agriculture Extension. The core objective of the scheme is to make use of television and radio with their massive infiltration as a medium that could be exploited for the purpose of extension.

Hopefully, this would give a new ray of hope to our farmers. In the last decade over 1 lakh farmers have committed suicide. Hopefully, with the new turn of events, their life would also take a new turn.