O P I N I O N S

fifty fifty
Cocktail parties and the gender debate
Why is it that even after so many debates, many among the elite continue to be, or rather still claim to be, mystified by the increasing rape cases being reported in the media?
Kishwar Desai
Recently, one has welcomed the fact that more and more literature festivals have gender on the agenda. And now I find that even drawing room conversations at social gatherings, usually about politics, power and money, has begun to veer towards gender issues, even if one has cocktails and canapés in one’s hand!

on record
‘With Internet in every pocket, power to the people’
Social media is set to grow in India in a big way with Google and Facebook gearing up to tap the regional languages market.
Shubhadeep Choudhury
talks to T Vishnu Vardhan, social media expert
The programme director of Access to Knowledge at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, T Vishnu Vardhan is leading the growth of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects in Indian languages as part of grant from the Wikimedia Foundation. His experience spans across academics, industry (media) and not-for-profit sectors. He talks about the spread of the Internet and social media in India and their impact on the traditional media. Excerpts:

ground zero
Welcome to the greatest sound and light show
The exterior of the space port’s master control centre resembles a saucer-shaped spaceship. Its inside is out of a James Bond movie with rows of computer consoles and TV monitors. As GSLV blazes across the firmament, its roar is louder than a squadron of fighter jets.
Raj Chengappa
It is visible to the naked eye for barely 40 seconds but a space launch is the greatest sound and light show that I have ever watched. On January 5, I was privileged to witness the blast-off of India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV-D5, from the space port at Sriharikota in coastal Andhra Pradesh. I consider myself lucky to have seen over a dozen Indian space launches and for each one of them I confess I become a little boy again and watch the celestial spectacle with wide-eyed wonder.

fifty fifty
Cocktail parties and the gender debate
Why is it that even after so many debates, many among the elite continue to be, or rather still claim to be, mystified by the increasing rape cases being reported in the media?
Kishwar Desai

Recently, one has welcomed the fact that more and more literature festivals have gender on the agenda. And now I find that even drawing room conversations at social gatherings, usually about politics, power and money, has begun to veer towards gender issues, even if one has cocktails and canapés in one’s hand!

However, what is a little worrying is that much of the discussion is still superficial. Why is it that even after so many debates, and wall-to-wall coverage, many among the elite still continue to be or rather, still claim to be, mystified by the increasing number of rape cases being reported in the media? My concern is that if educated, and even literate, people are still ignorant about the core issues of gender violence — what hope can we ever have of the reality behind the issues reaching the ‘aam aadmi ‘ or ‘aurat’. Or has this become just another kind of non-serious party small talk — and are people talking about gender not because they genuinely care, but because they feel it is important they sound hot and bothered about some of the key issues confronting our country?

Victims often lack the courage to speak up.

Thus recently I was accosted at one such party by someone who wanted to know about the rising number of rapes in the country and why there were more of them in the North than in the South of India. I have no idea why he had the impression that the South is far more egalitarian and kind towards women, but it is a common pronouncement by many. However, when someone makes a sweeping statement like that — it is equally important to remind them that most of the molestation of both men and women, boys and girls, who are vulnerable — happens at home, behind closed doors and goes unreported. In a hyper conventional, patriarchal society like India, where family honour is paramount, statistics will never bear out the truth about issues like rape because many of the victims will simply never speak up. Why are even educated and ‘literate’ people unaware of this simple fact? And thus the other question which is usually asked: ‘What is the solution?’ — becomes equally worrying.

The most obvious answer is that we don’t need more laws, but that we urgently need social reform. We need to start addressing parents and families and talking about the gender bias which exists within very opaque and dysfunctional family units which are now producing some of the maladjusted men and sometimes women who become oppressors. After all, this country comprises largely of people under 30 — many of whom will be parents very soon — and we need to examine the prejudice that they might carry. Just like people are born with a genetic flaw which might lead to a handicap later on, in the same way we are prone to a cultural virus that makes us succumb to a deep-rooted bias.

These are issues which need to be taken up, addressed perhaps very specifically by educationists at schools and colleges where there is direct access to a large number of young people — as well as to their parents and other family members. It also needs to be taken up by grassroots politicians at local levels — by panchayats and even perhaps the mohalla sabhas now being set up by parties such as the AAP. One hopes that the young Delhi Government will also take it up as a core issue, and that after free water and electricity, the freedom of women will be the focus.

Unfortunately, most of the people still believe that a law by itself can be a deterrent. As we have recently discovered even those who are law makers have been allegedly involved in cases of sexual harassment.

The other trend in these drawing room conversations is that there is usually a heartfelt defense of ‘people like us.’ This has happened even more perhaps because in some high-profile cases, the rapist is known to most of us — but, for obvious reasons, the name and identity of the victim has been concealed. Thus the insidious defense (on the party circuit) launched by many of the well-wishers of a well-known editor, almost sounds orchestrated. Rarely has one found anyone speaking up for the alleged victim. Thus the girl is painted out to be promiscuous —perhaps in the hope that by character assassination they can defend the indefensible. ‘How can anything happen in 22 seconds?’ they ask. ‘They were only in the elevator for 22 seconds’. The problem is that rape victims are often beset by those who will always question their integrity and truthfulness. One hopes that, one day, these drawing room conversations will reflect not our prejudice, but our progressive attitudes towards rape victims.

on record
‘With Internet in every pocket, power to the people’
Social media is set to grow in India in a big way with Google and Facebook gearing up to tap the regional languages market.
Shubhadeep Choudhury
talks to T Vishnu Vardhan, social media expert

The programme director of Access to Knowledge at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, T Vishnu Vardhan is leading the growth of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects in Indian languages as part of grant from the Wikimedia Foundation. His experience spans across academics, industry (media) and not-for-profit sectors. He talks about the spread of the Internet and social media in India and their impact on the traditional media. Excerpts:

How powerful are the Internet and social media today?

One way to answer the question is to throw some data. There is 83 per cent of mobile connectivity, so and so per cent of Internet connectivity over computer in India, and so on. The data is important to understand the extent of penetration of digital technology in India, particularly through the mobile telephone rather than the PC-based or laptop-based access to the Internet.

When you say mobile phones, are you talking about smartphones?

These could be smartphones or feature-phones also. So many feature-phones are available in the market now. These phones do not cost much. Hardware, therefore, is not going to be anymore a deterrent for access to Internet. I have seen the elderly also getting accustomed to using computers so they can keep in touch with their children who live abroad.

What about social media and its power in India?

It is very powerful. At least it is believed to be powerful because right from political parties and politicians to small vendors, all are trying to leverage it. During the last five years, there has been a tectonic shift in this regard. It will be very interesting to see how the story unfolds in India.

What is unique about India?

Social media is set to become bigger and bigger in India with companies like Google and Facebook gearing up to tap the regional languages market.

Is English increasingly becoming strong and all pervasive in India?

I would believe it and get worried on that score. But the Internet is bringing in a lot of changes. Font problem has been solved too. The ramification of what takes place when this new regional language enabled market comes on board in social media platforms is still not very clear. But it is certainly going to be huge.

Whatever is happening in India now must be an old story in developed countries?

In the US and Europe, Internet penetration took place in the PC age. But we have bypassed the PC. Internet access in India through phone is growing rapidly. India is taking a completely new path for this.

Some social media websites are also trying to get into the news domain. Have you come across instances where news has been first broken in the social media?

There are many such instances. One of the Wikipedians, Kartik Naga, took some pictures of the Mumbai terror attack and posted on commons. These were available to the world much before the traditional journalists could capture images of the incident. Real-time information about tsunami also came from people.

In the West, some print publications — newspapers and magazines — have closed down because people have apparently switched over to the Internet.

The real issue here is whether traditional media wants to stick to a particular technology or it is ready to embrace a new technology for the production and dissemination of news, which is its core activity. If traditional media is averse to embracing the new technology, there will be all kinds of problems like the paper will shut down or some completely new random players will come and corner an old veteran and so on. But if the new technology is embraced, there will be new ways and means of benefiting from it. It depends on how a traditional media entity is looking at Internet and social media. In the last two or three years, we have also seen so many news stories that got made by social media. There is a buzz about social media, and traditional media picks it up and makes it even a bigger story. I do not agree with this drawing of lines between social and traditional media. I think it is a mixed media.

You mean to say there is no threat to traditional media from social media in the long run?

There is no threat. At the end of the day, production of news is not the business of people active on social media portals. Traditional media could actually thrive by the clever use of Internet and social media.

What about news that breaks in social media and is imaginary or based on rumours. What happens then?

These things do happen. People are working on finding out ways to verify news contents on social media. There are already people whose mission in life is to prevent rumour mongering on the Internet.