The Untouchables - II

Maha Jodi

The Untouchables - I

Creative and Entertainment Industry and Media : recently, I have read a post by mysansar. That post was talking about the top ten NGO who gets donation from US company. In this list you can see the name of MaHa sanchar also along with other 9 company. this company is listed on 5 number for getting donation seven times with total of 500,600 dollar until  May last year. Hari Bansa is also a board member of the Antena Foundation Nepal which is the top most donation receiver in this list. How come our big and brilliant artist are on the list of donation from US ? Do we have all the people in this country who can do good work if only they get dollar money ? what if they were not provided those greens had they stopped working for the national ? This is a good slap in our entertainment and creative industry.

Trust me, like many of you I am huge fan of these two towering personalities of our country. You must have read his autobiography Harayeko Manche, where at one point you can read him do for nation don't ask for donation, but, the truth is; his company Maha Sanchar have made all the good programs with donation money ! Easy to preach hard to live that preaching.

I agree with you, when you say they made all the good programs, most of them has so strong social messages in it. In every society, creative people keep doing that to make money as well as responsibility to society. Here lets talk about movie made by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani. Producer like Vidhu Vinod always needs Director like Rajkumar Hirani as director and this Director needs Aamir Khan to tell his story to the society in a way they will listen and also make them good money. Audience will go to the movie hall just to watch him, knowing Amir is sensible actor who will not play in meaningless movie.  Three idiots has very strong social message, yet, it was not made with donation money. Instead, it went on to make new box office record with 350 corod, breaking all previous record  any indian movie have ever made before this. Bollywood movie Taare Zameen Par also has a strong social message, yet it was not made by donation money. Satyamev Jayate broke all Indian day time price for being so expensive. Yet it was not made by donating money and the social message it it had and the impact was so that it not only affected Indian society but around the world. So much so that Bill Gates wants to work with him for his project that is going on in India and the UN have appointed him good will ambassador. Amir Khan strongly believes when you do business everyone was to make money.

Donation made program breaks the channel of marketing and open competition in box office. Because big name like Hari Hasha and Madan Krishna name was on top of the donation program it broke that channel and competitive feel in the market. they were spending good money to make good programing but with donation money instead of investors money. they were winning the heart of public but breaking the cycle of distribution chain of marketing. Today, we can't see good program on our television is not because we can't compete with Indian channels but its because big stars lie Hari Bansa and Madan Krishna were so short sighted to see its lasting impact n our society. Are they scared of open competition o box office ? or they thought they are too big to compete with new creative breed of brains ?

One thing I have noticed in our media is, it keeps a loud silence on why Bhaskar Rajkarnikar is still allowed to run his TV station ? We have been reading in many media that Avenue TV not paying its staffs for six months, not to those just pretty face news anchors. Can we trust those journalist to be the voice of voiceless when they can't raise voice for their basic rights which is to get salary on time ? I keep meeting with people, who tells me that the staff of avenues are never paid on time and then there was man from electricity office to cut the electric supply from his TV station but he manages to call some number to stop it for a day. There were staff from his office, who were putting, not paid for the work they do on their facebook status. Fine, the staff will be fired soon but how come other journalists can't write about a media house which is exploiting journalists as well s suffering from cancer like disease. Are they afraid now he is a powerful man ? Why our mainstream media do not talk about Hari Bansha Acharya and his company lining up for donation from the US ? Why our media do not open debate on creative and entertainment industry taking donation from the same NGO from US ? Like Maha sanchar there is Nepa~laya, who is in the same list to receive donation ? Why journalists do not pick up their pen to write about the untouchables for their investigative work ? Why people in media can’t raise question against Kantipur and the one kg gold offer or 10 ten million bumper prize to its potential buyers ? Are they afraid to raise voice for rich, wealthy and powerful people in society unless they have to ‘bring them in size’ ? Not every question I have raised here, crosses the code of conduct, but its media’s work to show its public good way to future not leave them   like a crow to get lost in the foggy winter.

Unless we learn to touch the untouchables, in our news, media will keep losing the trust from public. In result, it will cost media house advertisement from corporate houses. But, instead of finding its answer, they turn to government to get the hundi from them.  Why don’t government use that huge money - more than 8 billion Rs** - annually to make the good program for the nation instead of distributing it to the media houses who want to survive on government money ? This way it will create more money from market and brilliant and creative people from industry do not have to line up for donation with foreign nationals.

References :

*http://www.mysansar.com/2014/05/12298/

China Harayeko Manche, Hari Bansha Acharya, Fine Prints

**Journo bring change within, Prateek Pradhan, Media and Ethics, Press Council Nepal

Note : This article has already been published in Samhita, Asar 2072 [June-July 2015]. This is a trimester magazine published by Press Council Nepal.

The Untouchables - I

Kantipur ad

Currently Kantipur is running an advertisements on its dailies. This advertisements intends to lures its subscribers by giving hundreds thousands [Rs one lakh], which will be given every week, one million [ten lakhs] which will be given every month, and then the bumper prize is, hold your breath, ten million [one corod]. If you are not holding your breath or you are not impressed yet all you have to pay  attention to the fact is that they are giving this big money for spending daily only  Rs, 15 on their newspapers. Last year, Kantipur have announced to hand over  one kg of gold as a bumper prize.

This monthly  and bumper prize is ‘feed to greed’ and this is what pressed me to think about it. How much a media house can lure to its potential buyers to sell its product[s] when the total annual cost of Kantipur and The Kathmandu post, cost only about Rs. 7,000/- [approx]. Even if, the law enforcement allow them to go 10 folds of its total cost, it will not come close to one lakh. The huge money is a bet to catch all the newspaper readers to read only Kantipur. Monopoly that to feeding the greed of mass do not follow any business ethics in itself.  How can a state can watch such advertisement carried out by a media house without a word ? So, the question is when will state step in and interfere on matter like this ? Is this the work of law enforcement or it falls on the press council ? because a media house is acting like a greedy ethicless corporate house. What should be the  their step to control it ?

Let me remind you of a news that was on Kantipur television, a couple of years ago. It was about a family that used to ran their fraud business near by the Pepsi Cola town planning. It was about an old man, who used to run a rice sales depot. That depot was selling rice to public on far lower rate than market. That rate was about 500 - 600 Rs. less per sack than the market value.  No wonder, all the people from many parts of Kathmandu flocked in, to get that rice. Then one family used to take about six sacks at a time hiring a taxi service because they were getting it as that low cost. When Kantipur ran that news, I see this nice old man who looked like saint then, refuted it being fraud or being involved in fraudulent act in his business. He was saying, all they were doing was a social work because they could do it. That old man was so unsuspecting in any way, even to doubt, that he could be involved in something like that kind of big fraud. He had a long white beard which made him looked like very honest and respected man.

That news worked like a free advertisement for them, because when I had visited that place immediately, there were people waiting in long line to get the rice. Staff were busy doing their work and hardly had time to indulge the new customers and their questions. We have to get all the information from the people, who were on line. In a nearby depot, people were busy carrying the rice sacks which its customer were loading in taxi or on their backs. The depot was about to be run out of rice sacks in just couple of hours. Huge, trucks loaded with rice used to unload about three times in a day, in this family’s two depot. One of it was inside the town planning and the other was out of the Planning are just near by the sun city apartment. They were also talking about starting same service on gas cylinder also. After that, just about couple of months later, when they collected HUGE annual sums from thousands of households from Kathmandu valley, one day there were no trucks loads of rice coming and going in that area. I also heard, there were huge bill to be paid to the rice factory from where they used to order  the rice which they sold at subsidized rate.

I also remember, another news reported in  Kantipur, about a man - who was the agent here to sell those products from India. He sold Dhanalaxmi barsa to the superstitious people here in Kathmandu and other big cities in Nepal. At first, our naive people bought some items; sometimes it was rings and sometimes stones. Hoping, buying such goods will shower money in their life within weeks or months. Until one day, they realised they were duped. So, these very naive people went to police station to file a case against that agent.

If those are the case of fraud, then how come Kantipur should not be not charged with fraud ? Because this offer also open for millions of people and only hand full of people will get it. And if anyone wins it, no one knows, who won that big bumper prize. Some corporate insider say that, like the reality TV shows are scripted one, those bumper prize winners are also bought on couple of hundred thousands Rupees, to keep the mouth shut about such big prize.  Otherwise, why Kantipur does not give us the follow up news of those winners how do they spent such huge lottery  ? or why such winner vanish overnight ? How come we don't read about them in that other newspapers ?

So, who will say Kantipur what you are doing is lacking ethics in its core value ? Because its a media house, what it does will be copied by other corporate houses also. So, when you try to make a rule for them, they will ask you back, how can this is wrong when I do it and why its not wrong when a media house is doing it ? There will be more copycat to feed the greed to public, offering them big money to sell that cost about 15 Rs to one family a day. So, my suggestion to the - press council - is not to let them exceed those prize money to 100,000 [one lakh] maximum or they should be prosecuted for violation of ethics.

Editorial Conscience : About two years ago, I read a poem Rabindra Mishra had praised and appreciated. It was a ‘curse poem’. There was something in its core nature, I failed to appreciate it even if it was written by the sr. writer Jagdish Ghimire. He was so fed up with bandha callers then, he wanted to transfer his cancer [ along with other trouble of his] to those bandha callers for calling bandha endlessly. Agreed, bandha is not good itself but a sick person wanting to transfer his disease to other sick people [ bandha callers ] of the society ? Does this mean if one does bad the others even worse can  make it right ?  But Mr Mishra liked this poem so much, he shared it again on his social networking site. This really made me worry. Because he has huge fan following and he is spreading a negativity to this society at free of cost. But, worse I came to know later on, that this poem was already published in Nagarik and so he was just sharing what he liked to vent his frustrations or to show his support to the dying writer.

In a society like ours, which is so deeply gripped in superstition, a senior writer use all his creative brain to infuse all the frustration of his life - the writer was diagnosed of cancer and was given time to die six years before - in that small piece of poem stunned me. Fine, he can pour out his frustrations in that piece but how come a national dailies editor could not see its lasting and negative impact in society. Curse, is a slow poison and we can not get over from its lasting effect. Other thing what made me wonder is how come  he could not think of passing good thought and positivism in society before he die ? Instead he just wanted to transfer his disease to all the bad doers ! who gives him that right ? Sadly the writer died with his cancer and I have not read any news yet, that he was successful in his death wish to transfer his cancer to anyone.

As a responsible citizen of this nation, this poem finding its place on the national daily made me so infuriated with editor. Did he discuss it with his team before they decided to publish it ? Do we fail to see the bad impact because the writer was a respected person in society or they felt sorry for his condition ? or this was approved by the editorial team ? When it came out it found a huge fan like Mr Mishra. This raised another question in my mind, is media means the acceptance of bad my majority or the conscience of 2% people of the society, that shapes the thought of majority of the mass ? I have written a lot about it on my social networking site, still I would like to take the risk of repeating myself ; I wish Mr Pradhan - the editor of Nagarik - have kept his right to disagree with majority for it having a very bad vibe in its core.

Part two will be on next Sunday post

Note : This article has already been published in Samhita, Asar 2072 [June-July 2015]. This is a trimester magazine published by Press Council Nepal.

What you should know about safe ... ?

SRHR awareness training
picture curtest - Youth action Nepal

The core issue of our society has been lack of understanding and sensitivity towards girls/women who has to experience the menstruation flow not just for the first time but every month. This is also one of the most debated topic in our dailies and still this needs more open discussion. Because, during period she is told not to go to temple or some ‘pure places’ not to enter in kitchen and touch this and that as well as do this and that.

How bad the condition of awareness in our society ?

In some remote part of the country young girls or women are sent to cowsheds to sleep during those four days. That tradition do not change even if it's cold and raining outside. ‘Chaupadi’ is the taboo of menstruation in our society. We keep reading about it in our national dailies and this is one of the things that needs to be addressed properly.  Taboo, stigma are our main target areas to work in when it comes to gap the age old norms about the belief ;that revolves in menstruation. 

What every girl should know about the deadly virus as well as safe sex ?

What every girls and women needs to know about AIDS / HIV is, when a man emits sperm into her body, he spreads the deadly virus into her. Unlike other sexually transmitting disease, women do not spread it. She is the recipient of it and he is the giver of it. That is one of the reason women should be more aware of sexually transmitting disease. This is why it's makes it more important to know about the sexual and reproductive health. If she is aware of it she may be more careful during sexual activity.

Does safe sex mean protecting us from STDs only ?

That would be a mistake to presume that safe sex means to protect you and your partner from sexually transmitted disease. This also means to protect you from unwanted pregnancy. There are times in a month both sex can be sexually active but not get pregnant at the same time.  According to mum’s junction, “Safe period is from day 1 to 7 and day 21 to the rest of the cycle, when you can have sex without worrying about getting pregnant.”

Whether you know about safe sex or not the emission of sperm from a man into your body will not protect you from the sexually transmitted disease. Safe sex is a knowledge of the time when you can practice sex without using any protective yet not be the victim of unwanted pregnancy. There may be time this knowledge may not protect you from the victim of unwanted disease. That is why it's better to know about the contraception and use of it. The best way is to avoid the sex with unknown man.

What you should know about safe sex and condom ?

According to the US department of Health and Human service, even if men use condom, “of 100 couples each year whose partners use male condoms, about 18 women may get pregnant. Condoms are more effective at preventing pregnancy when they are used correctly and when you use them every time you have sex.”

Safe Abortion

Now in Nepal the abortion has been legalized despite there are people who still try to link it fetus murder. To avoid the fetus murder the would be mother was allowed to have safe abortion under  three terms only.

• When the pregnancy is only 12 weeks old.
• When the pregnancy is 18 weeks old and the fetus is diagnosed with serious health hazard
• Or if bearing the child can pose serious health threat to the would be mother.

SHRH awareness program for college students
picture curtest - Youth Action Nepal

What is the connection between period and pregnancy ?

Period which is the monthly flow of blood from all girls/ women is a sign that now she is capable of making new life, if she comes in  contact with a man. But for that new life she must be in a sexual contract with a boy.

Do girls get pregnant before period also ?

There are some cases reported like this. But, such case happens only if she has been sexually abused long before her mind and body is fully able to grasp what is going on in her life.

Is period blood is impure as believed by some conservative mass in our society ?

The person who perceived this notion is ignorant when it comes to reproductive science. He is made of same blood you and I are born and it's the same period blood we are made of. In that contest do you want to believe you, I or he is impure ?

If period blood is bad and impure and yet we are healthy when we were born, does this mean the sperm works as a detergent agent to clean the blood ?

Sperms do not act as a detergent agent nor it purifies blood; so that the we can have a healthy child. During the sexual intercourse a normal healthy emits 300 - 500 millions of sperms. What all these millions of sperms do is to travel to find an egg so that a new life can be formed. Do you know of that millions of sperms, only 100 sperms reach to the egg. But, only one sperm can enter into an egg.

Youth Action Nepal is an NGO which works in the SRHR area and this is one of the core thematic issue of the NGO also. So, I really wanted to know what have you done ? I met Mr. Santosh Bhandari, Program Coordinator to give me some insights of the work that has been going on . on ground level since long. It's a lot different than reading Dr. Aruna Uprety and Rameshwory Panta. These two are the one who has strong voice and they do  advocate of girls and women real condition in our society and they write about it in our media. They  raised voice on it but there are some NGOs who work on field in different level to tear the generation gap than which is better like that saying action is better than the reaction.  We had ran 104 episodes of radio programs in all five districts of the country he answered to my curiosity. Further, he made it clear that the true intention of such program was to tear the taboo, stigma as well as to aware the youth and adolescence on Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights. This program tries to answer all the question which an adolescent or youth has to face in this matter.  The biggest challenge any NGO like us face is to tear the generation gap and age old culture that grips our society very badly. To gap the generation, education and awareness level has to be wide and long term. The age old belief and cultural value of the society is not going to change overnight so we must keep working on this line relentlessly.

Mr. Santosh Bhandari, and Punya Bhandari  being
interviewed about the SHRH issues in one of the
radio program that ended in 2016

Behavior change is long term process and we can't expect it to happen overnight.

Aau Sangai Kura Garau : Radio program aired areas and FM station where it was aired.

1. Saptarangi FM - Jhapa
2. Radio Dhangadi - Kailali
3. Radio Simara - Bara
4. Radio Madan - Pokhara
5. Radio Hamro Pahuch - Dang