Media Institutions Fail As Bridges For Dalit Journalists

An anti-reservation post by an IIMC student on Facebook opens up the long buried caste debate across media institutes in the country, writes Sahal Muhammed.

- Sahal Muhammed

On 17 December, around 100 students of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) assembled at the amphitheatre of their picturesque campus in south Delhi. It was part of a discussion-cum-condolence meeting for University of Hyderabad research scholar Rohith Vemula.

Such debates, although essential for the vibrancy of a media institute, are unusual for IIMC, where bureaucrats from the Information & Broadcasting Ministry keep a tight check on political activities.

The day after, a student of Hindi journalism posted an anti-reservation rant on Facebook, which prompted 17 students to write a letter to the IIMC administration over its “casteist” content.

Upon being questioned, the student apologised for the choice of words used in his post but said that he stands by his views. Referring to an earlier incident on campus, when a copy of the Manusmriti was burned in the hostel as a mark of symbolic protest, he says that his sentiments were hurt by the book burning, although he does not believe in it.

An anti-reservationist, Manusmriti- respecting sentiment in IIMC is especially dangerous since, although there is no evidence that IIMC realises this, the institute is a crucial conduit for Dalit students wishing to enter mainstream media.

IIMC, which has centres in Delhi, Orissa, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala is the only public institution offering a diploma course in journalism. Each year, the institute takes the stipulated quota of sc/st students and offers them scholarships.

In private journalism institutes, the cost of study is too high (upwards of 4 lakhs for a diploma course in journalism). Chennai based Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) is the only private institute which offers fellowships for sc/st students. However, even there, only 4 seats are allotted out of around 200, coming to a paltry 1.5 percent.