‘Bhaiya paper le lo, bhookh lagi hai.’ A terrible legacy of Bhopal’s fourth estate

Bhopal: Young children with a bundle of newspapers can be seen knocking on car windows or approaching bike riders at a busy square in Bhopal. Come rain or shine, these boys are on the streets in the afternoon, with a plastic sheet covering their papers but nothing for themselves. Numerous newspaper publications employ young boys to sell their newspapers. The eveninger is usually out in the afternoon and almost 90% of the circulation of these newspapers depend on the children. There are around 10 prominent eveningers and a few morning dailies purely dependent on children for its circulation.Conversing with the boys selling newspapers is a difficult task as an agent always keeps an eye on them. They also alert their senior agent, in case the police or other authorities detain the children.The agents carry three to four children on a bike to the publishing house where around 50 boys wait for newspapers. The seniors come to the distribution point with their own arrangements. The agents distribute newspapers and assign them a square. Raju (name changed), 12, said he has been doing the job for three years. As he is one of the seniors, he has to take lifts from bike riders to reach his designated square. While Raju is forced to work by the relatives he lives with, he enjoys this work as he gets around Rs 100 per day. He gives half of his earnings to his uncle. "With little effort, we get a lot of money to spend on good food and buy anything we want. I want to buy a mobile phone with a big screen," he said.With over 4.6 crore copies published per day, Madhya Pradesh (MP) stands second on the list of circulation of all newspapers in India, while Uttar Pradesh retained the top position, according to the data released by the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI). The total number of registered newspapers and periodicals in the state has increased to 11,338 comprising 1,527 dailies, 8 tri/bi-weeklies, 4,419 weeklies, 526 fortnightlies, 4,232 monthlies, 396 quarterlies, 19 annuals and 211 other publications.Poverty not the causeArchana Sahay, director of Childline Bhopal, an organisation working to protect child rights, said that in most of the cases we observed that the family background of children who sell newspapers are not too poor to afford food.Sonu (name changed), 10, started working in 2018. He lives in a slum near Jyoti Talkies square with his parents. His mother is a domestic help while his father works as a daily wage labourer. He is one of the privileged few whose days begin with school, unlike most of the other boys. While most of the children of his locality go to play cricket after school, Sonu waits for an agent to pick him up.Citing in-house research on child labour, Sahay told 101Reporters, “In most of the cases, the children have an average family background with working parents. In some cases, parents are not aware that their children are selling newspapers on the streets. The agents lure them with money and trap them into the racket. In 70% of the cases, poverty is not a reason for child labour.”She also informed that even after numerous efforts, they weren’t able to stop the practice and “have surrendered.” “The racket behind this is so strong that we always failed to rescue children,” she claimed. She explained that they counsel children, their parents and sometimes even bring children to shelter homes after they were detained, but “most of the time police officers were pressurised from bureaucrats and they would receive calls from concerned media houses.”Sahay said that once they spoke to members of the senior management and urged them to not employ children, but they replied saying that even former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam used to sell newspapers.Some children have been rescued by social workers. Suraj, a resident of a slum in Anna Nagar, is one of those who have left his job. An NGO, Aaroha, rescued him and enrolled him in a private school. Sujeet said he used to conduct his business at the Inter State Bus Terminus and managed to sell all 50 newspapers, and earn Rs 50 per day. Shree Niwas Jha, the founder of Aaroha, said there are many children working as paperboys from Sujeet's locality, but it is not easy to rescue all of them. Agents are so powerful and dominating in the locality that only a few children and their parents have the courage to leave the job, he added.Taught to lieSocial activist Mohsin Khan said the children are trained to give false information about their background. Being in the streets come with their set of problems and due to the nature of their job, these boys can often be seen in bars, cafes and fast-food restaurants to sell their newspaper. People offer them alcoholic drinks too, claimed Mohsin. Children have become accustomed to consuming gutkha, pan masala and even drugs, he said. “They have money and are exposed to bad conditions on the streets, and that's how they are becoming criminals of the future," he added.Shibani Ghosh, another social worker who runs a museum school for underprivileged children, said parents, and not the children, are the reason behind the problem. "Sometimes the reason is poverty, but sometimes they just want to earn more. The parents are not ready to understand that it is not safe for a child to work on a busy road," she added.  Ravindra Jain, the editor of Agniban (a Hindi evening newspaper) Bhopal, said that few newspaper publications are employing children, which is not right. "They want children to do that job as it is less costly," he added.District collector Tarun Pithore told 101Reporters that the district administration has asked the media houses to discourage such practices. They have taken action against the agents and rescued four children recently, he added.

The Tiger Tribe of Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh has a rich history of tiger conservation. The history of conservation comes naturally to the tribal community who are the inhabitants of the state. However, in the past few decades, several tribes have been evacuated or forced to displace under the garb of tiger conservation and the members are slowly losing touch with their roots and forgetting their traditions.According to media reports, around 450 families from the indigenous Baiga and Gond communities were evicted to protect tigers in the Kanha Tiger Reserve in 2014. Forest-rights activist Vivek Pawar stated that the government and authorities make policies on tiger conservation that lead to the displacement of human settlement from the tiger-inhabited areas as they think that human beings and tigers cannot survive together. The authorities want to pit the tribals against tigers, but hundreds of years of coexistence between wildlife and human beings tell a different kind of story, he remarked.He claimed that hundreds of tribals community were tortured by forest officials under the veil of tiger conservation.As per latest reports, out of the 2,967 tigers in the country, the state has 526 and forms 17% of the tiger-occupied landscape in the country. Madhya Pradesh is home to numerous tribal groups and there are many stories of peaceful coexistence between tribals and tigers. The Baigas, an indigenous tribe which resides near the Kanha forest in Mandla and Balaghat district, are a perfect example. Like other tribes and forest dwellers, the Baiga have been the victims of forced evictions by authorities since the 1960s. These are often carried out in the name of conservation, in an attempt to protect the tiger populations, but have disastrous consequences for the displaced communities. Sixty-year-old Mangal Baiga, a resident of Katanga village near Kanha Tiger Reserve, revealed that a few years ago they had to leave their village Saup Raunda, located inside the forest, under the instruction of authorities and were rehabilitated to Katanga village. Tigers are like our family members and our life revolves around them, he stated. He revealed that even if tigers hunted the cattle, they didn’t seem to mind. “We think if the tigers are protecting our fields and forest, they have all the right to prey on our cattle sometimes,” he added.Arjun Singh Dhurvey, a senior Baiga artist from Dindori district, revealed that the tiger is considered as a brother and god by the members of the community. He informed that God Bagheshwar, who has the form of a tiger, is inspired from the local tongue for tiger and is worshipped before the cultivation or harvesting of crops, weddings and the birth of a child. He revealed that there are a few instances where tigers have killed a member of the tribe, but even then they don’t kill the tiger. They have adopted a unique practice where they slaughter a tiger made of clay. They believe that this ritual has played a crucial role in calming the man-eater tiger.He shared that the Baigas, in order to avoid a clash with the tiger, don’t bathe for two to three months as they believe that the tiger, being a god, wouldn’t attack an unclean person.Arjun said the Baigas still worship tigers and make artworks, paint on walls and even carve the shape of a tiger on wood.The harmony between the Baigas and tigers have been recorded by Verrier Elwin, an anthropologist, ethnologist and tribal activist. In 1939, he wrote a book, The Baiga, which shed light on the lifestyle of Baigas. "All Baigas avoid sparrows, owls, parrots, kites and vultures. Cranes are spared because they go about in pairs, and it is believed that if you kill one, you will soon lose your own mate," the book reads. The book also talks about the relationship between tigers and human beings. In his book, Elwin quoted Mahatu, a Baiga man, who had said that he can control tigers and even adopted a tiger as his son. However, Mahatu had trained the tiger to not attack any person.Traditions facing declineOwing to strict regulations by the forest department and authorities, Baigas cannot move freely in the forest. Activist Pawar highlighted that as the members of the new generation of the tribe are not able to move freely in the forest, they are missing out on the traditional knowledge. Earlier, the tribal people used to roam in the forest and collected herbs. They would transfer the knowledge to newer generations. He believes that the newer generation wouldn’t be able to learn about their traditions and centuries of knowledge about herbs and medicinal plants that have been passed on from generation to generation will be lost.He narrated an incident which took place a few years ago where a Baiga woman, with her grandchild, entered the forest. Then, she was allegedly abducted by the forest guards and given electric shocks. Her grandchild got lost in the forest and she passed away around two years after the incident took place.Pawar also pointed out that the forest dwellers are not used to the environment outside the forest and they fall sick whenever they go out into mainstream civilisation. They depend on the forest for sustenance and use plants as medicines and food supplements, he stated.In 2007, a Baiga woman had visited Hyderabad for a seminar where she couldn’t even consume dal (lentil soup), he said."They [tribals] can’t digest milk or spices. They get their nutrition from plants in the forest and they are more healthy than city dwellers," Pawar commented.Daya Ram Rathpuriya, an artist from the Baiga community, revealed that their traditional technique of farming, Bewar Krishi, doesn’t require the field to be ploughed for crops to grow as they are concerned about Mother Earth on which they grow their food. However, this technique is only practised in a few villages, he stated.He highlighted that their traditional food works as medicine, but due to the excessive use of rice, wheat and other grains the traditional food is vanishing.

Wary of early marriage, minor girl from MP village calls off her wedding

Satna, Madhya Pradesh: With henna-stained hands, 17-year-old Sona, a resident of Tagarpar village of Majhgawan block in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, walked out of her mehendi ceremony and called off her wedding. This was unprecedented for a woman from the village. While her single room mud house was still buzzing with guests, her parents supported her decision and handled the guests. Sona had consented to the wedding earlier but was unaware of the consequences of child marriage as her grandmother, mother and maasi (maternal aunt) were all minors when they got married.Sona’s maternal aunt played an instrumental role in Sona calling off her wedding two days before the ceremony. “My maasi told me about her ordeal and how she was forced to give up her studies when she got married as a teenager. She is suffering from chronic anaemia for 15 years as she had her first child when she was 16—two years after her wedding. She is living in extremely difficult conditions as she has six children now, her youngest being seven months old. She asked me to say no to the marriage, else I would have also faced a similar fate”, said Sona.32-year-old Rekha Bai, Sona’s maternal aunt, revealed doctors have been advising her against having more children, but her husband, who is a labourer, doesn’t feel the need to have a vasectomy procedure. “They wanted to get me married as soon as possible as they did not have enough income to feed another mouth. My in-laws didn’t allow me to finish my studies, and I became a mother soon after. I will not let my nieces and daughters face the same thing. If only I had continued my studies, my life could have been different,” she said.Sona, seeing the plight of her aunt, and having someone who thought of her instead of succumbing to social pressure, decided to follow her aunt’s advice.Minta Bai, Sona’s mother, said she was happy her sister stepped in to advise her daughter. She mentioned Rekha regrets giving up her education, and it resonated with Sona. “It was very bold of her to make this decision and my husband, and I decided not to put pressure on her,” she said while adding that she had to convince other family members to put off Sona’s wedding until later.Shiv Kailash Mawasi, a local activist, said he visited Sona’s place the previous week and was informed of her wedding. He had tried to convince Sona’s parents against the marriage citing Sona’s age. “I’m happy to see Sona’s courage and her maasi, who was able to convince the whole family about the decision to let Sona study further,” he said.“She is good in studies, and I told her if she would pursue higher education, she can change the fate of her family”, Shiv added.The condition of the district is mediocre in terms of family health. Most of the problems in the rural area are associated with early marriage, anaemia and malnutrition. According to the latest report of the National Family Health Survey, 40.3% of women of the district in the age group of 20–24 years were married before the age of 18 years. It was found that 4.9% of women aged 15–19 years had already become mothers or were pregnant at the time of survey. 73.4% of the children in the district between the age of 6 months to 59 months were anaemic (<11.0 g/dl). 47.9% of non-pregnant women in the district between 15 to 49 years of age were found to be anaemic, while the percentage for pregnant women of the same age group was as high as 61.9%. The statistics show the poor condition of health care and lack of awareness in the district.Child marriage is deep-rooted in the psyche of residents of the village and Ramkalia Bai, Sona’s maternal grandmother, was no different. She got married when she was a teenager, and she laments doing the same to her daughters. She cites the lack of awareness as a reason for child marriage of her daughters. She pointed out that she would never have gone through Rekha’s wedding if she would have known her daughter would become sickness-prone and her grandchildren malnourished. “I am happy to see that both my daughters are not repeating the same mistake I made,” she said.

Mute victims of heatwave: Animals dying of starvation in MP

Satna, Madhya Pradesh: Shripal Mawasi, a resident of Putrichuwa village in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district, has to help his cow stand up. The cow is not sick, she’s famished; a bit too weak to even stand on its own. Putrichuwa has been facing a massive water crisis and thus Shripal couldn’t arrange enough water for his cow.“I had bought this cow four years ago for Rs1,000. She gave birth to two calves during this period but this year proved to be bad for her. Due to the water and food crisis, I failed to feed her. When water is not available for humans itself, how can we provide it to animals!” asked a dejected Shripal.This is the situation in almost every household in this village. Abandoned cows at roadsides and in deserted fields are a common sight in the region. Rameshwar Mawasi, a resident of Barha Mawan village of Satna, said the residents of the village had predicted a drought in March and sold off their big cattle. He informed that now villagers have only goats for cattle as people have abandoned their cows and buffaloes owing to the shortage of food and water.Even during monsoons, there is no end to this problem. According to the statistics released by the Indian Metrological Department, the state has received 56% less rainfall between June 1 and June 26 compared with the same period last year. The average rainfall should have been 91.4 mm during this period but the state received only 45.1 mm water.The condition of Satna district is particularly bad. The district received 58% less rain than last year between June 1 and June 26. From June 20 to June 26, the district received only 6 mm rainfall while the average precipitation is 46.3 mm.This district has been receiving unfavourable spells of rainfall for the last two years. In 2018, the rainfall in this region was 784 mm, while it was 743.2 mm in 2017. The average rainfall in this region is 1039 mm.The lack of rainfall has created a famine-like situation in the region. Bhurelal Mawasj, a resident of Putrichuwa village, said he regrets buying a cow. He highlighted that if the rains are delayed by another two weeks, everyone will lose their cattle.Heat wave in the region has already begun killing birds and animals. Recently, monkeys, birds and bats were found dead in Madhya Pradesh because of extreme heat. The tropic of cancer passes through Madhya Pradesh, because of which the region faces nine days of extreme heat every summer, the period being called nau tapa.Struggle for waterNot only animals, even humans are facing great difficulty because of scarcity of food and water. Women walk nearly four kilometres to fetch drinking water. Fourty-year old Phool Bai, a resident of Putrichuwa, informed that seven hand pumps in the village have dried up and the women go to a nearby pond and a well to fetch water.The severity of the water crisis is similar in the nearby villages of Majhgawan block.“There is a lone functional hand pump in the village and that too gives dirty water. One has to keep pumping it for 15 minutes to fill a 20-litre bucket,” rued Rajaram Mawasi, a 55-year-old resident of Kiraipukhari village.He added that while the villagers use water from the hand-pump only for drinking purpose, water for animals and other household work is obtained from a pond three kilometres away from the village. An average resident of the village walks 15 to 16 kilometres to fetch water twice or thrice every day, he said.Satendra Singh, the district collector of Panna, was not available to comment on the scarcity of water and the steps the government has taken to address this shortage.

Village lake supplies water to city, villagers left high and dry

Panna: As the sun is setting in the horizon, children in the tribal village of Manas Sagar in Madhya Pradesh's Panna district, best known for diamond mines, can be seen carrying large water-drums on their bicycle."I fetch water from the well located in a graveyard two times a day. Sometimes, I reach school a little late due to this. In the evening I have to rush back from school to get water and there have been numerous times when I could not even change my uniform as it gets dark and visiting the graveyard is scary in the evening," says Kiran, a class VIII student.The children residing in villages near Panna city have to bear the brunt of the water crisis plaguing the region. For about 200 people living in Manas Sagar, the major source of potable water is the Lokpal Sagar lake. But the village is deprived of it as the water from the lake is supplied to Panna which is situated three kilometres away. This lake is amongst the three lakes, the other two being Dharam Sagar and Nirpat Sagar, which is used to supply water for the residents of Panna.Named after Maharaja Mahendra Lokpal Singh who ruled in the region from 1893 to 1898, the lake has a gross storage capacity of 6.37 million cubic metres. Baring the one well in the village graveyard, the residents of the village Manas Nagar have no water source other than Lokpal Sagar lake which is situated half a kilometre away from the village's boundary.The water crisis in the village is multiplied by the administration’s apathy towards the plight of the villagers. Ram Kishan, a resident of the village, feels that even though nobody has prevented them from fetching water from the lake, it is unwise to use the water since the water is full of sludge and is harmful to one’s health. He adds by saying that while Panna Municipality has installed a pipeline to draw the water mechanically, the villagers don’t have access to water that is siphoned off by the pipeline."The solution is very simple, just provide us with the clean water drawn by the pipeline, but nobody cares about this small village," laments Kishan.Summers are especially difficult for the people residing in the village as the water from the silt-laden Lokpal Sagar lake is unfit for consumption, the villagers resort to digging pits in their fields to procure water. Travelling two or three kilometres for water is the norm for residents in the village, as the water crisis is a perennial problem for the inhabitants of Manas Sagar. Some have resigned to their fates after bringing it up regularly with the district administration, Jitendra Ahirwar, a daily wage labourer, says, "We have tried everything from requesting our local leaders to the officials, but no one has any solution. We have accepted that this is our destiny and we have to face it every day."“Manas Nagar is facing discrimination”, says Yousuf Beg, an activist from Panna. He says that while water is available in the village, the inhabitants are unable to use it. He proposes that the pipeline that draws water from Lokpal Sagar lake be connected to the village, which he says will require minimum efforts on the part of officials. “I have written to the district collector and other officials many times, but no one listens to the voice of the poor villagers," adds Yousuf.Shortage of water is not the only issue that the dwellers of the village face. Contaminated water from the two water sources in the village aid to the health problems of the residents. Shiv Kumar lives with eight members of his family. He says that they use five to six containers of water which amounts to about 100 litres of water per day but require more than that. Talking about diseases his family suffers from, Shiv says that the kids of his family suffer from diarrhoea regularly while he has skin problems. According to the Disaster Management Plan prepared by the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Chennai, all tehsils in the Panna district are prone to diseases like malaria, typhoid and jaundice in the summer season, due to the scarcity of clean drinking water.Former Member of Legislative Assembly of the area, Mukesh Nayak says that the issue of the water crisis is not the issue of governance as the water has to be available for distribution. He says that while he was serving as the MLA, he found that installing hand pumps are not the actual solution and insists that the administration works on a permanent solution.The situation for the 59,091 inhabitants of Panna city is dire too. The city recorded a rainfall of 1176 mm last year, which was only 70 percent of the average rainfall. All the three lakes which supply water to the city are also suffering from the lack of water. BK Kori, an assistant engineer and in-charge of water supply in the city, spoke to 101Reporters, “If the summer continues like this we will not be able to maintain water supply like this.”The district of Panna is one of the districts with the least Fully Covered (FC) habitations (public or private drinking water source that is without quality problems, has adequate supply and is accessible to all) as per the research of published in Journal of Rural Development for the Bundelkhand region.District Collector of Panna, Manoj Khatri wasn’t ready to listen to the water crisis problem when this reporter tried to get his comments. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Zila Panchayat, Rajesh Ku. Ogrey and MLA Prahlad Lodhi were not available for comments on this issue.

Poverty in Bundelkhand deprives labourers of voting rights

Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh: While walking past the lanes of Anandipur of Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, it is hard to miss the locks which adorn the door of houses made of mud and terracotta-tiled roofs. While the whole country participated in the festival of democracy, election fervour in the village was muted as half of the village was missing. Situated in the Bundelkhand region of the country, Anandipur is plagued with mass migration, as is the trend across villages across the region. Despite an extensive awareness programme carried out by poll authorities, the villagers who had come to the village for the harvest season returned without exercising their right to vote. They shared that their struggle for livelihood takes precedence over their democratic right to vote. The village voted during the fifth phase of the elections on May 6th under Tikamgarh Lok Sabha constituency and recorded a voter turnout of 66.47 percent. Struggling with drought, Jagdish Ahirwar, a farmer, had to leave the village after harvesting wheat. His wife and two small children also accompanied him to find work. Another resident, Devendra Mishra, said that Jagdish knew of the polls taking place on May 6th, but due to the low yield of wheat, he wasn’t able to stay until the polling got over. “Every second house of this village is suffering from the curse of migration. Some people go for work with their whole family while some leave their parents in the village as they feel that they wouldn’t be able to face the hardships of daily life in the city,” Devendra added.For poor residents of the village, migrating to cities doesn’t warrant a great lifestyle. Ram Narayan Rajput, who works as a construction labourer in Delhi, revealed that the living standard of labourers is abysmal. He pointed out that a small room is shared by a group of five to six people. “We do not have the luxury to take a bath every day. Female labourers suffer a lot due to lack of privacy. We can afford rented accommodation only if we can make Rs 1000 per day. That’s why I use to live alone in Delhi. My wife and children live with my parents in the village,” he added.Ram Narayan had returned to Anandipur, about two months ago to harvest his crops while also hoping to cast his vote, but his contractor called him back to Delhi. He caught a train to the capital city within the next two days. He said that while voting is important, his work is a higher priority since his job with the contractor is at stake as he will be fired if he fails to report to the contractor. Ram Narayan has a family which consists of his two children, wife and parents. With his daily earning of Rs 400 to 450, he manages to save Rs 7000 every month and has to run back every time his contractor has a job for him.Bundelkhand comprises of seven districts of Madhya Pradesh — Datia, Tikamgarh, Niwari, Chhatarpur, Panna, Sagar and Damoh. Niwari, a newly created district was separated from Tikamgarh district in 2018, faces the same ordeal of migration. Villagers of this district migrate to Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to find work. Jhumak Lal Ahirwar, a labourer who works at a construction site in Gurugram also came to the village to find a job during the harvesting season but only found disappointment due to the ongoing drought. He mentioned that he had to spend all his savings while also borrowing some amount of money from friends. As he was desperate for money, he left for Gurugram in Haryana, just two days before the elections were scheduled in the village.  When asked about missing his opportunity to vote, he told 101Reporters, “Poor people do not have any right as we would die if we worry about such things. I would love to work in my village, but there is no work available in my village or nearby town. Life is still difficult in Gurugram but better than Niwari.”Every year more than 20 percent of the village population have to migrate to find work. While the consensus in rural areas is that labourers working in factories and construction sites have it easy, Mast Ram Ghosh, a resident of Niwari, said the opposite is true. He recounted how Bhagwan Das, a resident of the village, passed away after he was stuck in a threshing machine in Haryana. “Bhagwan Das is just an example of how our villagers are doing dangerous work in other cities. We received half of his body. There are so many men and women of this village who never return. No one knows where they go,” he added.The data shows that Madhya Pradesh is facing an acute problem of migration. 2.5 crore people have migrated from the state out of which 1.85 crore people are from rural areas. It should also be noted that only 11 lakh people migrated for less than a year.The situation is not much different at Kota Gunjapur village in Panna district. Ram Vishal, a resident, said that two families from the village left with their whole family to work at a construction site in Haryana as they were facing huge losses from farming.According to data from the Election Commission, Bundelkhand regularly records a lower percentage of voter turnout as compared to the state’s average. In 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Bundelkhand’s voter turnout average stood at 43.88 percent while the state average was 51.17 percent. Similarly, in 2014, Bundelkhand’s average was 51. 48 percent while the state average was recorded as 61.57 percent.Even this year, the average voter turnout percentage of Bundelkhand region was low as compared to the state’s figure. Tikamgarh, Damoh and Khajuraho parliamentary constituency witnessed 66.47 percent, 65.82 percent and 68.12 percent respectively against the state average of 69.14 percent.People who migrate from villages don’t get the chance to vote. Rolly Shivhare, the state coordinator of Association for Democratic Reforms, said that the labourers couldn’t afford the fare to come back to the village to vote and they usually don’t add their names registered in the city in which they reside, which prevents thousands of people from exercising their democratic right. “We have approached the Election Commission to schedule trains as the Railways does during festivals. The election is like the festival of democracy, and we should encourage migrants to participate in the festival,” she added.Talking about challenges faced by the Election Commission in voter awareness work, Abhijeet Agarwal, Joint Chief Electoral Officer of Madhya Pradesh Election, said that they work with a special focus on migration-affected areas. He mentioned that the district administration looks after the matters of migration but during awareness campaigns, Election Commission tries to appeal to the workers to return on the day of polling. “We issued an appeal in Jhhabua about the same where people migrate to Gujarat for work. We do see some impact, and we try to create awareness by asking the voter to transfer their names to their current location voter list if returning is not possible for them,” Agarwal added.

How press turned into paparazzi for pretty polling officers

“I saw photographs of the lady and the photo idea clicked on my mind. The same kind of photo went viral a few days ago in Lucknow. I sent my fellow photojournalist Nirmal to take more photos," said Abrar Khan, chief photojournalist of Navdunia Bhopal.On May 11th in Bhopal, a day before the phase six of Lok Sabha election, the booth level officers had gathered at Lal Parade Ground to collect the EVM machines and received instructions to prepare for the election day. A group of photo journalists took photographs of the polling officers, but one officer stood out the most, a woman officer in a blue dress.A seemingly normal image of the polling officer, Yogeshwari Gohite, wearing sunglasses and smiling while carrying an EVM machine seemed to have captivated the hearts of many Indians and went viral. During the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha Elections, a similar picture went viral of a female polling officer, Reena Dwivedi, draped in a yellow sari. Due to the viral tendencies of these pictures, newsrooms have started putting pressure on their reporters to hunt for more viral content like this.When Yogeshwari’s picture went viral reporters were instructed to find every possible detail about the “woman in the blue dress”. Some reporters were even asked to click more pictures of attractive women polling officers. A few media outlets even dug deeper into Yogeshwari’s social media accounts and created photo galleries from images they could find. The photo garnered so much attention that media outlets struggled to hold the interest of the audience with almost little to no information on the subject of the photo. A reporter spoke to Newslaundry on the condition of anonymity, said, “Our editor had instructed us to find the girl in any case. This photo had become most important election assignment for us. Initially we had only few photographs of the girl in which the booth number was not clear. However, other photographers provided some other angles after which we came to know that she is posted at a booth at Govindpura and we went there."                      Further talking about merits of the photo, Abrar Khan said, "We take photographs at Lal Parade ground a day before the elections and focus on such faces, either they are happy or sad. Usually we get sad and tired faces of officials, but this lady was dressed nicely and doing its duty with great enthusiasm,"Till mid-day, reporters were sharing usual information such as voting percentage and information about EVM glitches with their fellow reporters but once Yogeshwar’s photo caught the attention of newsroom editors, on-field reporters were asked to verify information about ‘the woman in the blue dress’.  Reporters started a hunt for the polling officer in the blue dress. Earlier, her booth information was not known but when reporters found out she was stationed at booth number 154 in Govindpura ITI, they rushed there. However, the polling officer denied speaking with the reporters during her working hours and asked them to wait till evening. At least 20 reporters and photojournalist were waiting for the woman to come outside and speak to them. At first Yogeshwari Gohite was uncomfortable with the sudden attention. She wanted to speak with the reporters but turned then away as she wanted to complete her duty as a polling office and asked then to wait. The reporters were not able to wait till 9pm as they had other election deadlines to meet. A few photographers tried to wait but at the end of the day no one was able to interview ‘the woman in the blue dress’.This next the day the search was still on, to complete the assignment. The most challenging task was to find the address of the bank that she worked for. "I had talked to her a day before the election and she told me that she worked at a bank. I came to know that she lived near Ashima mall. The bank is also nearby her house. I found her bank, as she was on leave I asked the manager for her address and found her at home." said Deepak Vishwakarma, a journalist associated with Navdunia Bhopal, when he spoke to us about the struggles he faced to find her address."She was not comfortable with sudden popularity. Her husband is in Army and he was also not ready to allow us to do an interview. I talked to him over phone and convinced him to allow us to take an interview of his wife," added Deepak Vishwakarma. Other media personnel also reached her home the very next day after polling for an interview.Yegeshwari Gohite hails from Betul district and works as an officer in Canara Bank. Once the media frenzy calmed down little around her she felt happy about the popularity of the picture. "On the very first day when media people were approaching me to talk to them, I was not aware about the viral post. I came to know about the popularity after completing my duty. The media persons asked me questions to know more about me. I told them about my lifestyle and the ways I use to keep myself fit." She told us that she wanted to utilise this fame and participate in 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire). "Small town girls get little chance to become famous,” she added.'Social media brings this new trend of reporting'Sharbani Banerjee, a Bhopal-based media professional, has been working for media for 14 years, she said, “As a woman and a media person, I feel highlighting some female on how she looks or what she wears, especially from election booths is disgusting. Renowned channels and newspapers went crazy to have an interview of that ‘blue dress’ girl, who according to them was looking pretty. This mentality could lead a trend where the media will start scanning beautiful nurses, doctors and teachers. This is a very sexist way to judge a woman. I feel these types of stories should not be called news. If this trend continues, females will feel more insecure to be judged by everyone. Also barging their privacy is also ethically not right.” Reena Dwivedi, the polling officer whose picture went viral in Lucknow, said, “I'm very upset with the media’s headlines which claim that I'm a looking glamorous in saree. Now media is taking all things in a negative way. If a woman likes to look nice and wear Indian clothes how can it be glamorous." But she was still happy with the fame, "Most of the media had reported it in a very positive way but some section of media did not take care of my privacy.” she added. Talking about handling the sudden fame Reena says, "I have been busy taking phone calls since the polling day. Some media people came to my office for interviews and some call me at late night for comments. Today I received few less calls and so I think now things are getting normal."Veteran journalist Chandrakant Naidu who has been working for 47 years in media organisations such as Indian Express and Hindustan Times said, "Election reporting was not like this earlier. I did not see this type of stories during the course of my career. I think this is happening because of 24x7 news channels and social media. The content not only has to be prominent visually, but also sensational. Social media has a bad reputation because of fake news but also for this type of content where there is no defined line which should not be crossed. This is a debatable issue, is it right to consider content like this as news?" Commenting on the news value of polling officer in the blue dress, Naidu said, "If you see at the coverage there is no news value in the issue. It is just a fact that a lady is wearing sunglasses and a dress and doing their work. I think apart from getting ‘five W and one H’ for a news story, one thing which eventually should be asked before going for the story and that is 'so what', and that it will make the news."

MP city becomes hottest in the world

Hdg: Villages in MP's Khargone district staring At Day Zero Crisis as the area witnesses world's hottest daysKhargone, Bhopal: While Indians were voting for the largest election in the history of the world, Khargone in Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest temperature in the world as the mercury levels rose to 47.5 degree Celsius—the hottest in the entire world according to a weather website, worldweathertoday.info. This was reportedly the highest in the world for the second time in three days. But that is not all, as is synonymous with the summers in India, the underground water table in the city has sunken more than half a kilometre while the city is suffering from a debilitating water crisis. The villages in the district are waiting for the inevitable day-zero. Many villages in the district like Temla depend on groundwater as their primary source for water. Since the pipeline which provides water to the village broke down, the residents of the village have only been able to get water once a month. The village last received water from the pipeline in February, after which the pipeline stopped functioning. Since then, the villagers use bull carts to transport water from faraway sources.  Inhabitants of the Dhabla village in Khargone district can be seen carrying containers of water on their carts every morning and evening. Dagari Bai, a resident of the village, pointed out that even though water crisis in the region is frequent, the fact that all the prominent water sources of the village have dried up shows the alarming reality. While a resident of the village, Kuwar Singh is kind enough to let about 50 families of the village draw water from the sole working well in the village, Dagari Bai is worried about the future as the temperatures will remain high till the month of June. The situation is quite similar in Ambagaon, another village in the district. With a population of 350, the village is without any primary source of water as the groundwater sources dried up in February. Jhinki Bai, a resident of the village, said, “Bringing water from a pit which is five kilometres away from the village has become the routine of my life. Some people of the village have purchased donkeys to carry water, but many women have to carry water on their heads.”The situation is so acute in 10 other villages in the district which include Bhinakgaon, Jhhiranya, Chhendiya, Anjan, Bhagwanpur and Segaon, that they will be running out of water soon.DP Dubey, a senior scientist and former director of the Regional Meteorological Centre, Bhopal, considers this heatwave very dangerous not only for humans but also for other species. “The heat waves from Rajasthan and anticyclones or high-pressure areas are responsible for the high temperatures in Khargone district.” He pointed out that birds and animals are the most vulnerable in this season as heatstroke has been attributed to be the cause of deaths in birds. Similarly, it has a significant impact on the evaporation of surface water and trees, he maintained.The impact of the heatwave on birds can be seen in the district. Over 20 herons were found dead under a tree at Sanawad civil hospital in the first week of May.Most of the surface water source, including Kunda river, which passes through this region, has dried up due to excessive heat and evaporation in the area. Authorities are trying their best to maintain supply in Khargone city from the Dejla Dewada dam, but the dam is also facing a huge water deficit. According to BL Rawat, incharge of engineering for the dam, the dam can hold 50.29 million cubic meter water, but there is only two cubic meter water of available in the dam, which is half of what was available last year during the same time.While desperate times call for desperate measures, the situation in Khargone city is so dire that people are getting water supply on alternate days. The officials have revealed that this practice is being carried out to maintain a supply of water over a longer period of time. Saraju Sangale, in charge of water supply in the municipality, stated that the city of Khargone needs 22 lakh gallons water per day, but due to the undergoing water crisis they are only able to supply 18 lakh gallons of water.Barring a few villages on the banks of Narmada, most villages in the region are facing a massive water crisis. The administration’s inability to provide a solution to this problem has angered many. Rehmat, a water conservation activist, alleged that while the government shows as if they are serious about water conservation, they have done very little to address the issue. “If they work on permanent solutions like small check dams in villages and conserve traditional water sources for rainwater harvesting purposes, it can solve the crisis.”Water activists say that indigenous solutions like planting trees can also help with the water crisis. Residents of Rupkhedi village adopted this solution and carried out a plantation drive in the village in 2001. Balam Balke, a resident of Rupkhedi village, said “While every neighboring village is facing a water crisis, all the wells and hand pumps in our village are in working condition. We planted many trees near the water source, as well and made a check dam in the village.”PC Sharma, Public Relations Minister of Madhya Pradesh government, revealed that the Madhya Pradesh government is heading towards a permanent solution to this problem. “We are trying to make temporary arrangements to maintain water supply, but that is not the solution. We will come with a solid plan to eliminate the water crisis permanently. We will carry out works related to the water conservation plan at the village level soon, once the plan is finalized,” he added.