Author: Praveen Kumar
Publication Year: 2016
Keywords: thesis
Abstract: We Indians are proud to be citizens of the world's largest democracy as every citizen enjoys several rights under the constitution of India. Right to freedom, right to liberty, right to life and right to privacy are some of them. Indian Constitution guarantees protection and promotion of human rights of every citizen of this country. But despite making commitments to curb some of the main abuses, it continues to have significant human rights problems in different parts of the country. The independent India has a diverse civil society, free media and an independent judiciary but we have not prevented our society from ill-practices, corruption, and lack of accountability that lead to numerous human rights violations. Jammu & Kashmir and Chhattisgarh are two major states where human rights violation has always been at the top. Several human rights violation cases of Jammu Kashmir and Chhattisgarh are registered in National Human Rights Commission every year.
Despite well-drafted and well-intended initiatives by the government including police reform and improved access to health care and education, the poor implementation seems to have led the nation to be in-vain. Several efforts and schemes have also not been able to bring women, dalits, children, tribals, religious minorities, people with different ability and sexual and gender minorities to the mainstream and they still live a marginalized life. Such people still suffering discrimination because of government failure to train government officials in preventing discriminatory behavior in the society.
Impunity still remains a big problem in areas like Jammu and Kashmir where abuses related to security forces are still prevalent. The state which has been torn apart by constant terrorism and separatist movements for a long time now is spearheading the human rights violation. Due to the activities related to terrorism and separatism, many cases of human rights violation are reported in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
On the other side, human rights violations are also rampant in the state of Chhattisgarh. The state has been facing the crisis since its inception in 2000 as incidents of violence and atrocities have become a normal affair in this state. The very reason of the formation of the state seems to have been forgotten as after 15 years of its formation the natural resource-rich state has been battling with the backwardness and other violent movements. Naxalism has emerged as the biggest reason behind the human rights violations in Chhattisgarh. It has been the main reason for human rights violation in the state of Chhattisgarh. Despite its natural resources, the state has been battling with extreme poverty and subsequently gross violation of human rights. The fight between the poor and the rich has taken the center-stage in the state which has led the state to a bigger problem of human rights violation.
Despite numerous national and international human rights norms, violation of human rights is rampant in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh. In this situation, it is expected from the Government and other stakeholders like media, NGO's and others to take cognizance and act effectively to protect Human Rights and spread awareness in the society in this regard. Being the forth pillar of Indian democracy, media has big responsibility not just to protect human rights but to promote human rights amongst those, who does not have awareness and easy access of justice. In this scenario, we have to understand concept of media and various medium of media and how it can play an important role to promote human rights. This study has been focused on relation amongst human rights, media and society, media's role to promote human rights, how media aware citizens, how media sets agenda and how media has been an important tool to prevent human rights violations.
In addition, we have tried to find out what role media has played in the promotion of human rights and what role is expected from media in the future to promote the human rights in India. The study has been focused on the states of Jammu-Kashmir and Chhattisgarh as both the states have large number of human rights violation cases. Moreover, this study has been focused on the comparative study of "Role of media in promoting human rights in Jammu & Kashmir and Chhattisgarh".
Both the states, geographically, demographically, economically, politically and historically are quite different. Despite several dissimilarities, there are many similarities between two states, as both are victim of large number of human rights violation. Both the states are witnessed of large scale militancy, insurgency and violent activities respectively. Thousands of innocent people have been died in both states during violent acts of anti national and anti social elements in both states. In this context, media has even much more important responsibility to play major role to protect human rights and to ensure justice to the victims of human rights violation.
When we talk about media, it can be seen as traditional media (folk media etc), print media (newspaper, magazines etc), electronic media (radio, TV etc) and new media (facebook, whatsapp, twitter, websites etc). New media has an enormous role in promoting human rights as it holds a vast repository of the data which is stored on the World Wide Web and is open to all. Today social media, a part of new media has become a part of the normal routine of daily interaction between the individuals. Hence, there are possibilities in new media, that one can use this platform of media to prevent wrong doing of society. Human rights violation is one of them, where new media as well as different platform of media has big responsibility to create protective and compatible environment for human rights of citizens of India.
This research study covers the research design, study area and media's negative/positive coverage. Data collection method, Case study, data analysis and ethical issues are also presented in this study. As per the guidance of the study the questions have been used by me to investigate the human rights problem. After collection of requisite data, comparative method has been adopted to know about the role of media in promoting human rights in Jammu & Kashmir and Chhattisgarh.
The area of this study is Jammu & Kashmir and Chhattisgarh. It is based on news/views coverage of various media platforms like traditional media, print (newspapers, magazines etc), electronic (television, radio etc.) and New Media (facebook, twitter, whatsap etc.) and their impact in the field of human rights promotion.
Findings of this research study show that despite being accused of paid news, focused on political, crime etc reporting and facing several allegations of ignoring human rights issue, media has played an important role in promoting and protecting human rights throughout India. As area of this study is based on Jammu & Kashmir and Chhattisgarh, this study indicates that media has played a key role in promoting human rights. In both the states, media covers human rights abuses and try to create a positive environment to human rights promotions, so that victims of human rights violation could get justice.
In many cases, media exposes human rights violations and inform the competent authority about the same and try to make pressure upon the government and administration to take proper action. But as I have discussed in the conclusion that however, media has an important role in the field of human rights, it has not done his duty as was expected from it. In recent years, it has diverted their focus from human rights and other sensible issue to political, crime such issue, which give more TRP. Therefore human rights issues some has been removed from media's priority list.
As far as the recommendation and future study are concern, the main recommendation is that being a forth pillar of democracy, media must work for the betterment of the society and its citizens. This ought to be in their priority list. Journalists and media houses should understand the value of coverage of sensible issues like human rights. There must be some specialized journalists to cover human rights and they must be given training time to time about legal and administrative provisions related to human rights. In a situation of conflicts, journalists, covering news related to human rights violation should be given more protection. There must a separate beat to cover human rights in media houses, so that one can have better life in a democratic country like India.And if we talk about future study, one can have a separate and specific study of any specific form of media such as new media, electronic media, print media etc. and their role in promoting human rights. A separate study can also be done about human rights violation incidents due to naxalites and role of media or human rights violations incidents due to terrorism and role of media.
University: Sri Venkateswara University
Shodh Ganga Link: View Thesis
Category: Media Studies
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