:::..S.I.F...T.I.M.E.S..::: - Media: A Puppet in Politicians’ Hands?

It is saddening to note that in spite of there being independent and unbiased watchdog organizations meant for maintaining impartiality and quality of news reporting in India, statistics are being misquoted often enough in issues involving the socially most respected human relationships. The statistics quoted and projected by media houses in the context of the domestic violence related issues is a clear case of blatant and mass scale murder of journalistic ethics. It is incumbent upon Press Council of India and all those who stand for upholding the very basics of professional and quality journalism to help do whatever it takes to prevent media from failing in its duty to serve its purpose of being an independent, unbiased, and free watchdog. Media needs to exercise much and deliberate care when it comes to reporting about issues involving every household. It is very unfortunate that media should come up with unsubstantiated and un-related figures to project a very grim and hopeless situation while reporting on domestic violence in India. Needless to say that media reflects society, and should focus on issue from right perspectives keeping in view the interests of the society. It is on the basis of such reflections that opinions are formed. And general opinion is what constitutes a great deal while dealing with an issue. Media is duty bound to focus on problems from the most right perspective. Media needs to be very careful while dealing with numbers and should consider all the relevant facets before attributing these figures to some social trend.

A wealth of information is hidden in statistics. But to come to conclusions on the basis of such information needs extra care and attention to detail; otherwise one is bound to end up making incorrect and wrong inferences.

There is more than one dimension to the statistics relating to crime against women: one that the tolerance limits have lowered and the other that women have begun to wake up and shed inhibitions imposed by customs and traditions to seek (not fight for) their legal rights (which everybody should welcome and be happy about rather than look at it negatively). There is one more dimension; that of steady erosion of scruples. The third dimension is doubly essential to study and explore; because there are unscrupulous individuals on either side of this gender divide, i.e., both men and women can be equally unscrupulous).

It is necessary to have a balanced view of all these dimensions before making out a definite and correct interpretation of the prevailing scene. The traditional, family-value-based Indian Family system is going to suffer heavily and irrevocably if we fail to highlight and take into account all the dimensions relevant to the prevailing trend in the social scene. This multi-dimensional nature of domestic violence needs to be studied and the scenario (I am refraining from calling this a problem, because it can be a case of women coming of age!) commentated upon suitably. Tangibly, there are three major contributors to the figures available on crime against women. To blame it only on to men being unscrupulous and dominating is not going to help us curb the menace. In fact, this approach is fraught with dangerous consequences for matrimony and is bound to hit at the very foundation of the Indian family system. It will be in the interest of the Indian family culture that this situation is appreciated and analysed holistically so that suitable and appropriate corrections can be adopted. Otherwise, we are muddying the already muddied waters that a present Indian family finds itself in. The new central law against domestic violence is a very irresponsible way of dealing with this sensitive and delicate issue because it considers the issue from only one dimension, leaving other contributory factors out of the purview of the solution methodology. Any sincere effort at improving the lot of women in India is welcome, provided it is solely for the benefit of the women in particular and family in general. The dirty and divisive politics of playing one religion against another and one caste against another is now being extended to pitch women against women. And all this is being done in the name of empowerment! We as Indians are becoming the unsuspected victims of these ill-drafted and ill-advised policies of some vested interests. Time and again there has been genuine criticism of these elements of so-called empowerment, but the policy makers have not bothered to pay any heed to it.

Justice JD Kapoor of Delhi High Court in one case (filed under section 498A supposed to empower women) observed: “There is growing tendency to come out with inflated and exaggerated allegations roping in each and every relation of the husband and if one of them happens to be of higher status or of vulnerable standing, he or she becomes an easy prey for better bargaining and blackmailing. These ground realities have persuaded this court to recommend to the authorities and law makers to have a review of the situation and legal provision.”

It is not for nothing the learned judge has commented like that, and this is just one of the instances of what justice administering agencies feel about the situation. I call upon media to leverage its clout for overall good of Indian family and prevent politicians from playing divisive politics with this age-old establishment of the Indian society.