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Bihar Floods-Bihar is swarming with reporters and media personnel

Sorrow of Bihar

Abhinandan Mishra

Northern part of Bihar is swarming with reporters and media personnel. With the who’s and who’s of print media and the electronic media converging on the swollen banks of Kosi, the might of the sorrow of Bihar and the plight of those affected by it is now being witnessed by everyone.

Before 18th of August no one including me cared about what was happening in Supaol or Saharsha. It is nothing more than perhaps the law of our society that only in times of extreme sorrow that the poor hogs the limelight. And then also the affected victims have to share their 10-15 days of ‘fame’ with the politicians who are one among the first to reach such places.

In the past too, old women were swept away, children died of snake bites and man drowned, but who cares for a few numbers. In the end it is all about the eye catching numbers; huge number. In the present case the 29 lakh people that were affected was too big a number to give a miss.

As soon as Manmohan Singh after a ‘quick response’ that took 10 days to come, declared the flood a national calamity, all hell broke loose. The flood affected regions of Bihar which till then were ‘immune’ from the presence of even a reporter from a local news-channel suddenly found itself facing familiar faces of our vibrant media. You name them and they were there.

No one can take away the fact that the media did and is still doing a commendable job of covering the calamity ,but the point is that is presence of ‘huge numbers’ the only criteria for making a news a national news?

Reporters after reporters are taking great pains and efforts to visit the areas that are still out of reach for the state officials. Heart rendering footage has become the order of the day. Some have taken great pain to cross over to the other side of Nepal and dig out stories on how the breach occurred due to the negligence on the part of the irrigation department. They also declared that the breach was a result of long period of negligence and the breach didn’t take place overnight. Agreed that the breach developed over a period of time. But why wasn’t the breach brought in the public when it was still in its initial stage?

Its not that the dam was kept out of bounds for the journalist, it’s just that at that point of time it was not worthy of being shown on the national television. Who would have watched a ‘eroding dam’.

Post the ‘national calamity’ declaration things have changed. Now even a glitch in a minor embankment is making news. I guess the top management of the media that moves and shakes in Delhi have their own idea of a news-worthiness.

Calamity or no calamities, politician are flowers that bloom throughout the season. The Below the belt remarks that have been coming from the political leaders of Bihar has highlighted the sad plight of the level to which the leaders can fall even in the worst of time. Not even the catastrophic effects of a swollen Kosi, could stop these leaders from indulging in political war at a time when they should have been attending to the rescue of the millions that have been affected by the raging Kosi.

The political game that ensued saw Nitish Kumar calling himself an unsung hero and terming Lalu, a dramatist, who was moving around the flood affected areas with a train of TV reporters. Lalu replied back and declaring that Nitish has lost his mind.

After Kosi river broke all barriers and flooded 15 districts of the state, affecting more than 29 lakh people, it took 10 long days for the union government to decide that this time it was not ‘just another regular flood’ that affects Bihar every year but a national calamity.

Then came the initial statements of no politics in time of sorrow. But later the whole nation stood witness to the troika of Lalu Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and Nitish Kumar engaging in political statements and counter statements over fixing the responsibility for the floods.

Initially it was Lalu who started the fistfight when he announced in a press conference that the state government had failed to pay heeds to the instructions from the Center and had not repaired the Kosi barrage. Pointing out to the callous attitude of the state officials he came out with documents that pointed out that the walls of the barrage was breached a day after the State chief engineer (Irrigation) had reported that all barrages were in good condition.

In reply, Nitish came out with a set of his own documents in which it was said that the state government had been regularly corresponding with the center and asking them to take the issue of repairing the barrage with Nepal.

Paswan too joined in and rapped Nitish for failing to take timely actions to plug the breach. In between all this, the plight of the victims was forgotten and they were left to themselves. Even now many are still stranded and marooned and fighting a loosing battle.

Old timers point out that in a way the 15 years that preceded this government is also to be blamed for this failure of government machinery. During the earlier rule, the whole of the state machinery was left to stagnant and officers found themselves being molded in a way that required them not to venture out in the fields but to stay in the comforts of their offices. The same disease continues to plague some of the current lot.

Till last year the engineers of the water resources department were punished by the DMs in the flood hit areas. Whenever any breach occurred in the embankments the concerned executive, superintending or chief engineer was instantly arrested on the orders of the DMs and sent to jail. But now it seems that, Nitish who is an engineering graduate, has realized the bureaucrats too are at fault.

The CM suspended district magistrates of Supaul and Saharsa districts for Negligence in flood relief work. He was so infuriated with the officers that he ordered on the spot transfer of the two DMs when he visited the flood affected areas.

He also sent three of his cabinet colleagues in the worst affected areas with direction to stay there for a fortnight and not come to Patna. Three senior IAS officers from State Secretariat were also sent as special DMs in the three worst hit districts to monitor and supervise the relief and rescue operations.

Nothing can absolve Nitish because as a CM he was responsible for the state machinery but the bureaucrats too have let down the chief minister.After the flooding the Bihar chief minister was told by his officers that Nepal was responsible for the floods in Bihar as the embankment was breached from their side. Later the foreign minister of Nepal Upendra Yadav denied the charge and claimed that dam in Nepal was still intact.

Such was the mismanagement that rescue boats and rescuers had to wait for six hours for supply of diesel as the BDO of the concerned district was busy with the PMs Program. Then came a statement from a senior official of the state disaster management asking the flood victims not to come to Patna, and return back to their submerged homes through the same special train that had brought them to the capital.

The fury of Kosi continues unabated but for these representatives of people it has boiled down to who gets the maximum accolades in this time of sorrow. And not surprising it’s Lalu, accompanied by the ever swelling entourage of reporters who is winning hands down.

A law graduate from NLIU, Bhopal.Worked for 2 years as a journalist in media houses like Qatar Tribune, PTI, UNI etc. Currently treading on path that leads to a good B-school.
Sent by Shelly George, an intern, wishing to become a JOURNALIST, for wider reach. Thank you Shelly.

Water and Bihar

Managing water has never been a priority in Bihar. One of the modern rulers’ ‘karma’ sent Ganga Ma to a distance of seven kilometers away from Patna ghats. The other ruler made Kosi ma so angry that she changed her normal course and thereby the catastrophe.

Floods have been a common phenomenon all across the Indian state of Bihar – unfortunately, also the least developed region in the country. So much so that river Kosi, a major river that passes through the state is more popular as the Sorrow of Bihar. Now, this sorrow has turned into grief and a catastrophic one at that, with the river changing its course and inundating a large part of the state.

Around 15 days ago, river Kosi broke open its embankment in the Northern part of the state (bordering Nepal) to pick up a channel it had abandoned over 200 years ago, drowning towns, numerous villages and rendering over a million homeless in the process.

This is the biggest disaster in the history of independent India and by far the most challenging rescue and relief work ever carried out in the country is now under operation.

On 18th August, 2008, three days after India celebrated 61 years of her independence, river Kosi in Bihar picked up a channel it had abandoned over 200 years ago. The river broke its embankment at Kushua in neighbouring Nepal and submerged several districts of Nepal and India. 95% of the total flow of river Kosi is now flowing through this new course. Ever since the embankment broke, water has been constantly flowing in and over 15 districts in the state of Bihar are now 8-10 feet under water.

The breach in the river embankment has not only resulted in the river changing its course, the river is now flowing through areas that have never experienced major flooding. Millions of acres of human habitation and farmlands have thus gotten submerged in the river waters displacing more than 2.5 million people in the State.

Rains and continuous water flow has also made evacuation and disaster management difficult, in a region which is otherwise the poorest in the country. When it doesn’t rain, it gets extremely hot, aggravating the suffering of the displaced population, particularly for children, pregnant and lactating women and the aged.

Roads are reported to be damaged and water and electricity supplies in the affected districts have been seriously disrupted. Railway tracks have been submerged and essential commodities, including food, are being transported by boat.

Things were never too good in the state. The politics of the state has been such that it never let it prosper and with the best minds (actually, all minds) migrating to other states and mega-cities like Delhi and Mumbai, it was always left to the short-sighted politicians and the largely uneducated and rural population. The floods have now washed a major part of the state (quite literally) as if to have cleared the slate. Hopefully, not only will Bihar get some attention but also a dedicated and much needed development policy. Written by Govind Singh
27-yr-old Kosi barrage had 25-year lifespan

Tue, Sep 2 02:26 AM

The Kosi Barrage was built in 1956 with a lifespan of 25 years but 27 years since its “expiry date”, the barrage has not been replaced by a more permanent arrangement. Today, Kosi in Nepal flows three metres above the surrounding land and the barrage has far served its working year of 1981.

Many analysts say it was a problem which was waiting to burst at its seam. India is entirely responsible for repair and maintenance work and operation of the barrage, as per the bilateral agreement signed in 1954. This year, however, there have been no major repairs done.

A cash strapped ministry of water resources demand for grants show there has been no money allocated for the maintenance of flood protection work for Kosi this year. The same has been the case for 2007-08 and a paltry sum of Rs 2.5 crore being spent in 2006-07 as a part of grant-in-aid.

Flood forecasting on rivers common to India and Nepal suffer from similar fate as no amount has been assigned for such activity. The past two years have also not seen a single penny been spent on such activities. The day Nepal’s new Prime Minister Prachanda took oath of office and India was busy showing its anguish over the Nepali Prime Minister’s first visit being to China, the Kosi burst its banks and roared down to the plains of Bihar.

The government belatedly realised the seriousness of the crisis and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described it as a “natural calamity”. Cries of building the Kosi high dam, which will create a reservoir stretching from Sunsari to Ramechhap in Nepal, has now renewed. For the year 2008-09 not a single penny has been earmarked by the government for the survey and investigation of Kosi high dam project. The same was the fate in 2007-08. In 2006-07 an amount of Rs 5.19 crore was spent on the project. About 40 million hectare or nearly 1/8th of India’s geographical area is flood-prone. The plains of north Bihar are some of the most susceptible areas in India, prone to flooding.

Kosi river has changed its course, now flowing through a fresh channel some 120 km to the east, which has no levees or protective embankments. The worst hit districts are Araria, Madhepura, Supaul and Purnea. Drained by two major rivers, the Kosi and Gandak, and several smaller systems such as Burhi Gandak, Baghmati and Kamla-Balan, the plains of north Bihar have experienced extensive and frequent loss of life and property over the last several decades.

The Kosi river is well-known in India for rapid and frequent avulsions of its course and the extensive flood damages it causes almost every year.

The river is one of the major tributaries of the Ganga, and rises in the Nepal Himalayas. After traversing through the Nepal Himalayas, it enters India near Bhimnagar. Thereafter, it flows through the plains of north Bihar and joins Ganga near Kursela, after traversing for 320 km from Chatra. The river has been causing a lot of destruction by lateral movement and extensive flooding.

As its waters carry heavy silt load and the river has a steep gradient, the river has a tendency to move sideways. Experts say in about 200 years the river has moved laterally by about 150 km.

To check the lateral movement as well as for flood control, embankments on both sides of the river were constructed, 5 to 16 km apart. Although this has confined the lateral shift of the river within the embankments, flooding could not be controlled.

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Flood situation grim in Bihar, more areas affected

Sun, Aug 31 12:22 PM

Patna/Saharsa, Aug 31 (IANS) The surging waters of the Kosi river continued to rise in Bihar, inundating fresh areas as hundreds of villages remained under water on the 14th day of the floods Sunday and millions were displaced and crying for rescue.

The water level in the flooded areas rose by two to three feet in several places as the river inundated fresh areas in Saharsa, Supaul, Araria and Madhepura – the worst-hit districts late Saturday night.

An official of the state disaster management department said here Sunday that nearly 400,000 marooned people have been evacuated and about 150,000 people sheltered in 170 relief camps set up in the affected districts.

Meanwhile, angry villagers demanded that the worst flood-hit districts of Madhepura, Supaul, Araria and Saharsa be ‘handed over’ to the Indian Army to save the hundreds of thousands still trapped.

‘It is high time the state government handed over the districts to the army to save the lives of marooned people,’ said Mundeshwar Yadav, a resident of Madhepura and now sheltered in a relief camp in Saharsa, about 225 km from here.

‘People have lost faith in the state government and patience is running out,’ said Bhola Sah, another flood victim at a relief camp.

On Sunday, over 200,000 cusecs water entered the state through the breached embankment of the Kosi river.

Officials admitted that the flood situation in Bihar continued to be grim with millions of displaced crying for rescue.

A case was filed against Water Resources Development Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav and some officials, holding them responsible for a breach in an embankment of the Kosi that triggered the devastating flood.

The case was filed in the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Saharsa district Saturday.

Farmer leader Chatri Yadav in his petition said that the minister and some engineers were responsible for the breach in the river embankment. He filed a case after the local police station refused to lodge a case against the minister.

The farmer leader has urged the court to send the minister to jail, official sources said. The court has fixed Tuesday for hearing the case.

Earlier, a Patna-based lawyer Shruti Singh filed a public suit in the Patna High Court seeking the court’s direction to plug the breach. The court is likely to hear the case in a day or two.

Opposition leaders have also blamed the minister for the breach that has caused the worst floods in the last 50 years.

The floods have claimed 35 lives, including 20 on Friday when a boat they were travelling in capsized in Madhepura.

According to official sources, over 2.5 million people have been affected by the floods in 1,598 villages spread over 15 districts.

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Three million displaced in Bihar floods
Enlarge Photo Indian air force personnel drop food from a helicopter in the flood-affected area of Kumarkhad…
Enlarge Photo Indian air force personnel drop food from a helicopter in the flood-affected area of Kumarkhad…

Sun, Aug 31 03:54 PM

PATNA, India (Reuters) – Authorities struggling to provide aid after devastating floods in Bihar said on Sunday they needed more boats and rescuers to help hundreds of thousands of people still marooned in remote villages.

Bad weather and heavy rain over the past few days have hampered rescue and relief operations in the worst-ever floods to hit Bihar state in 50 years, officials said.

“I can’t say specifically how many people are still stranded in floods,” Nitish Mishra, the state’s disaster management minister said on Sunday.

“But their numbers are in lakhs (hundreds of thousands) and we require more resources, more boats, army and rescue efforts to evacuate them.”

Floods have killed more than 1,000 people in South Asia since the monsoon began in June, mainly in Uttar Pradesh, where 785 people died, and deaths were also reported in Nepal and Bangladesh.

In Bihar, the toll rose to 90 on Sunday with five more people drowning overnight in separate districts.

At least 3 million people have been displaced and those figures could rise as heavy rain continued, officials said.

Television pictures showed villagers holding on to tails of cattle as they crossed flooded roads with belongings on their heads. Some were seen frantically waving at a few boatmen to come and rescue them.

“I presented my buffalo to the boatman in exchange for a place in his boat since I don’t have any money,” Shambhoo Yadav, a rescued villager said.

Authorities also complained that thousands of villagers have refused to be evacuated and go to camps, saying they wanted to stay back and protect their belongings.

The latest flooding occurred after the Kosi river burst a dam in neighbouring Nepal earlier this month and changed its course, swamping hundreds of villages in Bihar and destroying more than 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of farmlands.

In Nepal, officials said repairing the dam was under way but turning the river back to its original course would take time.

At least seven people were killed in monsoon floods and landslides in Nepal on Saturday, raising the monsoon-related death toll in the Himalayan nation to more than 100 this year.

NO RELIEF

Villagers in Bihar complained that relief was not reaching them and many are living without food for three-four days.

“We ate after nearly a week today,” Manohar Prasad, a rescued villager from flood-hit Madhepura district told reporters at a camp near Patna. “Some people donated us money,” he said, while eating some bread.

The Bihar government has been severely criticised by newspapers for failing to act in time to evacuate villagers.

More than 350,000 people have been evacuated over the past 11 days, officials said, admitting they did not have enough boats or resources to step up relief operations.

A Reuters photographer in Bihar said people were fighting among themselves to lay their hands on air-dropped food.

Cases of diarrhoea were beginning to be reported from many relief camps in the state, UNICEF said.

(Additional reporting by Gopal Sharma in Kathmandu)

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Bihar floods: Biggest relief operations on

Mon, Sep 1 01:30 AM

NAVY PERSONNEL on Sunday joined the army columns in saving the lives of thousands of people still trapped in the swirling waters of the Kosi as the flood situation in Supaul, Araria, Madhepura and Saharsa worsened on the 14th day of the catastrophe. With this, all the three wings of the defence forces – army, navy and air force – have joined one of the biggest rescue and relief operations in Bihar.

“Two columns of the army have been sent to Triveniganj, one of the worst affected blocks of Supaul,” said Additional Commissioner, Disaster Management Department, Pratyaya Amrit. He said the state government had chalked out a strategic plan to evacuate people from the worst hit blocks of Triveniganj, Chhatapur (Supaul), Murliganj, Udakishunganj, Bihariganj and Gualpara in Madhepura with the help of army and navy teams.

The state government has requested for 25 more columns of the army for evacuating people from the marooned areas. “So far, 15 columns of the army and three columns of the navy have arrived.

This is in addition to 4 columns of the army already carrying out the relief operation,” he said. Besides, six IAF choppers are already engaged in air dropping of food packets.

Till Sunday, 4.67 lakh people have been evacuated to safer places and moved to 172 relief camps operating in the affected districts, he claimed. Home ministry officials in Delhi, who are part of the National Crisis Management Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrashekhar, said 243 boats had been deployed for rescue operations so far.

Also, a special train has been sent on Sunday containing 4 lakh bottles of potable water. But there was recognition that the tragedy required the government to step up efforts.

About 18 tonnes of plastic sheets have been sent, but they would be able to accommodate just 3,000 families. Meanwhile, Madhepura continued to be submerged under six-feet water.

Floodwaters have engulfed some more areas. However, the Disaster Management Department sources said that the water has receded by 6 inches in the town on Sunday.

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After the deluge

Tue, Sep 2 02:23 AM

All the political acrimony within Bihar and between New Delhi and Kathmandu does not hide a simple fact: more modern methods of river water management in the eastern Himalayas would at least have mitigated some of the worst consequences of the Kosi floods in Nepal and Bihar. That governance of even the elementary kind has eroded in Uttar Pradesh,

Bihar and Nepal is not news. Beyond that, there is enough blame to be spread between New Delhi and Kathmandu. Together, the two nations have allowed accumulated old-think to prevail over enlightened self-interest when it comes to bilateral relations. Although the rivers run from Nepal into India, the former behaves like an insecure lower riparian state while India pretends to be the arrogant upper riparian. This paradoxical political inversion of geography is, of course, rooted in the asymmetric relationship between the two countries.

A small-state syndrome and a cultivated anti-India attitude among the Nepali political class have prevented Kathmandu from exploiting its immense water resources for national benefit in cooperation with New Delhi. India, for its part, has been slow to see its own huge stakes in the rapid economic advancement of Nepal and slower in devising creative policies for deepening the bonds with Kathmandu. New Delhi’s failure has less to do with hegemonic aspirations, which many Nepalese have come to believe in, than the lack of strategic imagination towards smaller neighbours. The emergence of a new government in Kathmandu led by the Maoists, the Kosi floods, and the plans of Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda to visit India this month provide an opportunity for New Delhi to consider a purposeful redirection of the very historic and special ties with Kathmandu.

At the heart of India’s new approach must be a public offer to Prachanda to scrap the unequal 1950 bilateral treaty of peace and friendship and begin immediate negotiations on a new one that Nepal finds comfortable. Having done exactly that with a similar 1949 treaty with Bhutan two years ago, the UPA government’s credibility on this score is high. India must couple the political commitment to build a relationship with Nepal on the basis of sovereign equality with a comprehensive economic plan for shared prosperity in the eastern Himalayas. This would involve developing effective trans-national water management, trans-border road and rail networks, joint tourism projects, especially the Buddhist circuit, and transit trade with China through Nepal, to name a few. Modernisation of political ties with Nepal, in the end, is about accelerating economic development in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.

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Damming the deluge

Tue, Sep 2 02:23 AM

It was gracious of the PM to declare Kosi floods a “national calamity” after an aerial survey of the vast area reeling under the fury of Kosi. Since it suddenly changed its course after breaching its embankment in Nepal on August 18, Kosi has moved 120 km eastward, inundating huge tracks of low land in hundreds of villages across a large number of districts in east Bihar. The Central government has also pledged an immediate assistance of Rs 1,000 crore as well as1.25 lakh tonnes of foodgrain to the Bihar government in order to tackle the calamity in right earnest.Â

Going back a few decades in the history, can one imagine that the Central government in 1956 had conceived of a plan to construct a dam on the Kosi at Barahkshetra in Nepal at an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore? Apart from controlling the flood, the dam was expected to irrigate 1.25 million hectares of land and produce 3,300 MW of electricity. The project was eventually shelved, apparently due to cost factor.Â

Bihar has the distinction of being the most flood-affected state of the country, accounting for about 17 per cent of the flood-prone area of the country. Even if we discount the loss of infrastructure and crops costing thousands of crores of rupees, the tragedy affecting the lives of people and cattle can not and should not be discounted. It is not only the loss of lives, but the uprooting, the separation from near and dear ones, the trauma and uncertainties faced by children and the washing away of the lifelong earnings of poor families, which constitute the tragedy. If there is an agreement on this aspect of tragedy, we should analyse whether, if a solution is available, the government should have tried that, whatever the cost? Especially if people know that the disaster affecting them could have been averted if timely measures were taken. Â

Embankment is only a temporary solution, especially for a river that brings in a lot of silt. Scientists and hydrologists all over the world agree that flood can be controlled only if there is control of discharge. Embankments can at best prevent water from spreading. However, if there is heavy silting (as is the case with Kosi), it puts pressure on the river’s spurs and embankments. The breach of embankment at Kusaha is no disaster. If the breach which is growing by over 200 meters a day, reaches the Bhimnagar barrage which is only 12 km away, and the barrage which crossed its estimated life span of 30 years some 22 years back gives in, it will be a real calamity. Paradoxically, when the idea of dam construction was dropped, construction of Kosi Barrage, also called Bhimnagar barrage (following an agreement between India and Nepal), with embankments below and above the barrage was taken up as a temporary measure. The effort could not take off beyond construction and repair of embankments year after year for several reasons. One main reason was a lack of agreement between the governments of Nepal and India. It need s to be appreciated that there is no international convention regulating water-sharing between upper and lower riparian states and therefore a bilateral agreement between two countries, where the upper riparian country has obviously an upper hand, needs to be reached with lot of groundwork. Somehow, this could never happen. It is estimated that in 1954, when the state had 160 km of embankment, the flood prone area was only 2.5 million hectares. In 2002, the embankment is 3,430 kms and the flood prone area has gone up to 6.88 million hectares. Â

It is believed that when the case of prioritisation of projects was being considered by Pandit Nehru due to fund constraints, Pratap Singh Kairon turned out to be more convincing than Srikrishna Singh, and therefore Bhakra Nagal Project was taken up in preference to Barahkshetra. Bihar lost its race to Punjab in becoming the granary of the country. The long term consequence of that one decision is more telling – from being among the top three states of the country in terms of per capita income and administration in the early ’50s, Bihar has languished at the bottom of the ladder for decades. We need to understand why a serious effort has not been made to address the issues. The financial losses caused due to recurring devastation, coupled with the hundreds of crores of rupees spent on embankments year after year, would easily set aside the financial problem theory. Even though the immediate cause of the present disaster is the negative approach of the Nepal government, in that it allowed (or encouraged?) local resistance to the repair work that was being attempted by Bihar engineers to plug the breach at Kusaha in Nepal, relations have been sufficiently cordial, so as not to frustrate a project that would benefit both countries.Â

Of the Himalayan component of the National Perspective Plan prepared by the National Water Development Agency (NWDA), 6 river links are directly related to Bihar. These are Kosi-Mechi, Kosi-Ghagra, Chunar-Sone Barrage, Sone Dam – Southern tributaries of Ganga, Gandak-Ganga and the Brahmaputra-Ganga (Manas-Sankosh-Teesta-Ganga) link canal. As part of the project, a multi-purpose high dam across river Kosi is proposed near the village Barahkshetra in Nepal. Besides the high dam, a barrage across Kosi river is also planned near village Chatra, 10-12 km below the dam, to transfer water to Mechi river through the Kosi-Mechi link canal. The Barahkshetra dam, the Chatra barrage and the Kosi-Mechi link will not only control the danger of recurrent floods, they will also bring in much needed prosperity to Nepal and plains of east Bihar through irrigation and hydro-power supply.Â

Let the present devastation catalyse the decision to undertake the projects which have been deferred for decades, especially because there is a potential to turn the state around in one go. The sympathy factor stemming from human tragedy and the backlash generated against Nepal can be leveraged to expedite these projects.

The writer is joint secretary, CSIR

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Centre exposes Bihar govt’s failure on flood fury

Tue, Sep 2 06:24 PM

A blame game after the unprecedented floods in Bihar came to the fore with the state government being accused by the Centre of not sending a scheme for works to be executed on the damaged dams on the Nepal section of the Kosi river.

Just a day after a state government report of August 17 said all the embankments were safe, the Centre was suddenly informed that erosions were taking place at the Kosi dam in Upper Nepal on Bahothal for the past several days, Union Minister of State for water Resources Jaiprakash Yadav said on board a special train in Purnia.

The state government also said some anti-social elements have forced out labourers working to protect the embankment, he said.

“We sanctioned about Rs 80 lakh for the repair of the embankment and I was asked by Lalu Prasad to rush to Bihar to prepare the assessment report,” Yadav said.

On his return to New Delhi after an aerial survey of flood-hit areas in Bihar, Yadav met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to inform them of the situation.

The Ministry of Water Resources Ganga Flood Control Commission (GFCC) Director Co-ordination S S Chaudhary had written to the engineer-in-chief (North) Water Resource Department of Bihar on April 1, asking about flood protection works on the Kosi being done on the recommendations of Kosi High-Level Committee (KHLC), Yadav said.

“The estimate/scheme framed by the state govt as per recommendations of KHLC for the works to be taken up in Nepal portion before the floods of this year was not received in S S Chaudhary’s office,” he added.

“It was also requested that a copy of the estimate/scheme duly approved by competent authority together with relevant drawings for the work to be done on river Kosi in Nepal portion on the recommendation KHLC for the protection works before the flood of 2008,” he said.

Two reminders were sent, on April 25 and June 12, from Chaudhary’s office in reference to his earlier letter asking for a copy of the scheme approved by the competent authority, Yadav said adding the Centre wanted the information but did not receive it.

On August 15, a report stating that all the embankments in Bihar were safe was received by the Union Ministry for Water Resources.

There were indications of some rise in swirling waters 543-569 centimetres above the danger mark at Basua at Kursela, Yadav said.

Subsequently on August 16, another report on embankment position said the water-level had reached 39 cm and 74 cm above the danger-mark at Basua and Kursela and the river was flowing 21 cm below the danger mark at Malda.

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BJP to PM: Allow use of MPLAD funds to provide relief to Bihar flood victims

Tue, Sep 2 07:05 PM

New Delhi, Sept.2 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today appealed to the UPA Government to change the way it dealt with natural calamities like floods and earthquakes.

In a letter written to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, BJP President Rajnath Singh said that the existing stipulation that Members of Parliament are not allowed to use MPLAD funds outside their constituencies should be relaxed as a special case.

Singh further went on to add that such a step was taken during the time of the Gujarat earthquake in January 2001 and again during the Asian Tsunami in December 2004.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad today announced that he was donating Rs.25 lakh to the Bihar Chief Minister’s Relief Fund to help the flood victims in that state. He also endorsed the party’s view that lawmakers should be allowed to use their funds to help the flood victims in Bihar.

Over three lakh people are still marooned in remote locations of Bihar. The floods have affected over 2.5 million people in 1,598 villages spread over 15 districts of the state.

The Army has carried out massive rescue and relief operations in the flood affected districts of Bihar and a large number of marooned people have been evacuated to safer places. About 20,000 to 25,000 people are being evacuated daily, said Colonel Raj Shukla, who is in charge of coordinating the relief operations.

The BJP missive came as the Central Government blamed the Bihar Government for not sending a scheme for works to be executed on the damaged dams on the Nepal section of the Kosi river.

The Centre claimed that it was only informed on August 18 that erosions were taking place at the Kosi dam in Upper Nepal on Bahothal for the past several days. Union Minister of State for water Resources Jaiprakash Yadav said on board a special train here that just the day before, he had received a report from the State Government that said all embankments were safe.

“We sanctioned about Rs 80 lakh for the repair of the embankment and I was asked by Lalu Prasad to rush to Bihar to prepare the assessment report,” Yadav said.

On his return to New Delhi after an aerial survey of flood-hit areas in Bihar, Yadav met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to inform them of the situation.

The Ministry of Water Resources Ganga Flood Control Commission (GFCC) Director Co-ordination S S Chaudhary had written to the engineer-in-chief (North) Water Resource Department of Bihar on April 1, asking about flood protection works on the Kosi being done on the recommendations of Kosi High-Level Committee (KHLC), Yadav said.

“The estimate/scheme framed by the state government as per recommendations of KHLC for the works to be taken up in Nepal portion before the floods of this year was not received in S S Chaudhary’s office,” he added.

“It was also requested that a copy of the estimate/scheme duly approved by competent authority together with relevant drawings for the work to be done on river Kosi in Nepal portion on the recommendation KHLC for the protection works before the flood of 2008,” he said.

Two reminders were sent, on April 25 and June 12, from Chaudhary’s office in reference to his earlier letter asking for a copy of the scheme approved by the competent authority, Yadav said adding the Centre wanted the information but did not receive it.

On August 15, a report stating that all the embankments in Bihar were safe was received by the Union Ministry for Water Resources.

There were indications of some rise in swirling waters 543-569 centimetres above the danger mark at Basua at Kursela, Yadav said.

Subsequently on August 16, another report on embankment position said the water-level had reached 39 cm and 74 cm above the danger-mark at Basua and Kursela and the river was flowing 21 cm below the danger mark at Malda. (ANI with inputs)

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Kosi repair starts, but Nepal holds key to long-term solution

Wed, Sep 3 02:22 AM

As Bihar grapples with the worse flood in its history, caused by the marauding Kosi river, work has started to repair the breach and ensure the river flows through its original path.

When the swollen Kosi river burst its banks in a part of Nepal just north of the border with India, it changed course, now flowing through a fresh channel some 120 km to the east, it has no levees or protective embankments. The worst hit districts were Araria, Madhepura, Supaul and Purnea.

The Kosi barrage built in 1964 was meant to hold 9.3 lakh cusecs of water so that the plains of Bihar and not flooded.

Two afflux bund or channels were created on the either side to reduce the pressure on the barrage and provide irrigation to the region. On the western side the afflux bund, made of compact mud, is 12-km-long while on the eastern side the bund is 32 km long.

The bunds are periodically maintained by the government of Bihar to ensure their strength and to withhold a Kosi in spate. This year, however, no such repairs were done. Due to heavy silt deposit (see chart) the Kosi had a tendency to move eastwards. The yearly repairs ensured that the bunds were able to hold the water of the river in its normal course.

This year the bunds gave away and 1.3 km breach in the eastern afflux bund and 80% of the river water rushed through the breach while 20% of the river continued its normal route.

Now a team of experts, comprising from the centre and the state have chalked out a plan to get the river back on course.

The idea is to go upstream from the breach side and divert the water away from the afflux bund. This would allow the bund to be repaired and ensure normal course of the river.

To divert the river water from the bund, the method will be a choice between concrete porcupine, wire crating or nylon crating.

“Depending on the flow and depth of water either one of these techniques will be used. If the depth and flow is less, then wire crating or nylon crating will be used. If the flow and depth is high then concrete porcupine would be used,” said central water commission chairman A K Bajaj.

Porcupine is a revolutionary and versatile concrete block retaining wall system. It needs no mortar and requires the minimum of plant and machinery for installation. The individual Porcupine element is an interlocking curved concrete block, which achieves its stability by the grooves on the top surface of one block matching the splines on the bottom of another.

The flow of water over the past few days have reduced. From 1.7 lakh cusecs of water on Saturday the amount of water discharged was 1.2 lakh cusecs on Monday. “Work has started on the diverting the water by government of Bihar and CWC is providing the technical help,” Bajaj said.

Weather permitting, Bajaj said the work on getting the river back on course and repairing the breach does not have to wait till November. “Work has already started and we have ensured the breach doest not increase any more. One does not have to wait till the end of the monsoon period to mend the breach.”

This, however, is not the long-term solution. Bajaj stressed that in future it is imperative to construct the Kosi High Dam.

“The Kosi High Dam is the only long term and feasible solution,” Bajaj said.

For Kosi High Dam to become a reality, the government of India will have to negotiate hard with the Nepali government. The detailed project report (DPR), which was being formulated by the two countries, was abruptly put on hold two years back after Nepal showed its disinterest in the dam.

The DPR would cost the government about Rs 150 crore and a dam of the magnitude envisaged would cost several more crore. However, given the present crisis and suffering, no cost can be greater.

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Mother Kosi, pardon us, they say to a river

Wed, Sep 3 09:53 AM

Patna, Sep 3 (IANS) Left helpless and desperate by the wrath of the Kosi, hundreds of women in Bihar have turned to worshipping the river in the hope that it will relent and make the floods mitigate.

‘Mother Kosi is angry, we are offering prayers to appease her,’ said Parbhawati Devi, the resident of a village near a road linking Saharsa to Madhepura, two of the worst affected districts.

With the Kosi showing no signs of receding two weeks after it breached its embankment in Nepal and flooded Bihar, forcing thousands to flee their homes, Hindu women are offering flowers, fruits, earthen lamps and vermilion to the river.

India, where people have learnt to brave the vagaries of nature for centuries, has a tradition of deifying its rivers and worshipping them. The Kosi is known as Bihar’s ‘River of Sorrow’ for the havoc it can wreak.

Phulwa Devi and her mother-in-law Urmila Devi along with half a dozen women offered prayers and conducted rituals for half an hour at the river, hoping to make its waters recede.

‘Pardon us, do not punish us any more,’ said one of them.

Women are also singing folk songs to make the Kosi river happy and requesting it not to harm people any more. ‘We are singing folk songs to help calm the angry Kosi,’ Urmila Devi, another housewife near Murliganj in Madhepura, said.

Reports from Farbisganj in Araria district said special prayers are being offered to the river by hundreds of people. In some places, villagers are sacrificing goats, hens and other birds.

Even Muslims are offering special prayers in mosques to seek the safety of flood-hit people.

Over 2.5 million people in 1,598 villages spread over 15 districts have been affected by the floods while at least 35 people have died.

Unlike annual floods, there is little hope that the waters of the Kosi will recede soon. The waters could be there till October and people have no option but to move to safer places, say officials.

The unrelenting floods have caused stress to many.

‘We are severely traumatised by the possibility of the water entering our homes,’ 63-year-old retired engineer Mohammad Salim Mansoori said on phone from Purnea district.

‘As an engineer of the Kosi river project, I have worked for years and am aware of its character and danger. The Kosi is notorious for changing its course.

‘So far we are safe but we are not sure what will happen. We have shifted to our roof with whatever food grains we have. Hundreds of families are stressed.’

‘Several elderly people are falling ill because of stress. Even my neighbour, Abdurrahman, suffered a stroke.’

‘How can we vacate our home? If we do it, we may lose our belongings and if we don’t we may face the danger of floods. We have sent the younger members of the family to a safe place.’

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Advani to PM: Solve Bihar flood problem quickly

Wed, Sep 3 04:35 PM

New Delhi, Sep 3 (ANI): Senior BJP leader LK Advani met Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh here today to seek a solution to the problem of recurrent floods in Bihar, where around 25 lakh people have been rendered homeless in the worst ever floods in the Kosi region.

Advani urged Dr. Singh to find both long and short term solutions to the problem of recurrent floods in Bihar.

Advani, who made an aerial survey of flood-ravaged regions of Bihar along with State Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday, said, “Since the recurrent floods in Bihar caused by rivers originating in Nepal have international dimensions, I would meet the Prime Minister on Wednesday to seek both long and short term solutions to the problem in coordination with the government in the Himalayan country,”

“In today’s situation, everybody should come together to help rather than indulging in mud sledging,” Advani added.

The state’s main opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had earlier lashed out at the state administration, accusing it of laxity in providing relief to the flood victims.

The flooding, the worst in 50 years, was caused after the Kosi River breached a dam in Nepal. This unleashed huge waves of water that smashed mud embankments downstream in Bihar state.

The waters of Kosi gushed into the state inundating vast areas and affecting around two million people. (ANI)

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Religious differences ’sink’ in Kosi floods

Wed, Sep 3 05:34 PM

The Kosi may have changed its course killing and displacing many in Bihar, but the river has also ’sank’ religious differences as evident in relief camps where RSS men were seen serving food to Muslims.

Clad in khaki shorts and caps, RSS men are serving gram and flattened rice to Muslim flood victims in a relief camp at Saharsa.

The camp being run by ‘Seva Bharti’, a Sangh Parivar outfit, at the zila school campus at Saharsa presents a rare but heartening sight where the devastating deluge of Kosi has sunk bitterness and differences.

“Over a 100 people of my community are taking shelter here for more than a week now and we have absolutely no complaint. Life cannot be better than this in a relief shelter,” says Mohammed Salauddin, who fled Parba village in Madhepura district along with his family to escape the flood fury.

In another camp, a kilometre away, a joyful reunion was taking place. The prayers of Phulo Devi, who has observed fasts on all occasions of ‘Teej’, have been answered.

Nago Paswan, her husband, who works as a farmhand in far away Punjab and had not visited their village in Murliganj in Madhepura for the last couple of years, rushed home when he learned of the flood havoc, but was stranded at Saharsa.

As luck would have it, he met Phulo and his children Rinku, Mamta and Rahul at the relief camp.

“I am relieved that my family is alive. I had given up hope after watching on TV the destruction caused in Murliganj,” says Nago.

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Assistance of Army engineers, BRO offered to repair Bheem barrage on Kosi

Wed, Sep 3 06:35 PM

New Delhi, Sep 3 (ANI): The Centre has assured all possible assistance to the Bihar government in the wake of the ongoing flood relief and rescue operations and a high level Central team has offered the help of Army engineers and the Border Roads Organisation for repair of the Bheem barrage on river Kosi where the breach took place.

A high-level team of the officials from the Centre lead by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar met the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and senior state officials in Patna on Tuesday.

The Cabinet Secretary informed the Chief Minister about the ongoing relief operations carried out by the armed forces and other central agencies and assured him that the efforts would continue in full swing.

He has asked the state administration to provide the details of further assistance required by them. Kumar appreciated the assistance given by the Armed Forces and desired that the main focus should be on rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.

He sought for more columns of Army for evacuation of the marooned persons and the Air Force for dropping of relief material.

The State Relief Commissioner has requested for more supplies of food, medicines and baby food. He has also sought veterinary services and establishment of relief camps wherever the railway heads are available.

He also emphasized that efforts should be strengthened for evacuation of the stranded people. The Indian Air Force is operating 11 helicopters, 3 IL-76, 13 AN-32 and 2 Avro aircraft for evacuation and dropping of relief materials.

About 100 boats are being sent to the flood affected areas today.

Defence Secretary Vijay Singh, Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources U N Panjiar, Secretary Border Management Jarnail Singh and other senior officials accompanied the Cabinet Secretary. (ANI)

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On a train from flooded Bihar – to new beginnings

Thu, Sep 4 03:41 PM

New Delhi, Sep 4 (IANS) Two years ago, the waters claimed her husband. Now, with her two sons going missing in the raging floods that swept through her Bihar village, tragedy has again struck Madhu Devi – one of the many hundreds who found themselves on a crowded train to New Delhi escaping their watery hells.

She got off the Vikramshila Express from Bhagalpur that chugged into the station Wednesday. Peering through the bars of the windows of the third-class sleeper coaches were distressed eyes searching for a safe haven.

Madhu Devi stood confused on the platform, away from other flood victims who had accompanied her on the lone journey. This was not the first trip to New Delhi for the 48-year-old Madhubani artist, who had come earlier to sell her paintings at the Delhi Haat.

But she is lost, dazed into incomprehension by the flooding of the Kosi, known as the river of sorrow, that has once again washed away her dreams and her confidence in life. The family of four has been reduced to one.

Her two sons, aged 12 and 18, left home one day and didn’t return even hours after the river waters had flooded the village. Officials told her that they may not have survived.

‘My sons are my reason for being. Without them I don’t know how I’ll survive. My life, my home, my means of livelihood are lost,’ said Madhu Devi, clutching a small plastic bag with her few remaining possessions, some money and the address of a friend here.

‘All is meaningless. Chances are that the Kosi waters have taken them for good but I will not lose hope,’ she said, dressed in a cotton sari she had been given at a relief camp. But she doesn’t know where.

She does remember the ‘happier times’ though.

‘I have come here before, I sold my paintings here at an exhibition at Dilli Haat a few years ago. Those were happier times.’

After waiting for two days at a relief camp when she was given the opportunity to get on board a train to Delhi, she embraced it.

‘There is too much grief there, I don’t want to lose hope,’ she repeated.

Even in her sorrow, Madhu Devi is looking at the larger picture.

‘Floods wreak havoc in my district year after year. The only reason it is in the limelight is because of widespread devastation. That is why the government is finally paying attention but even now the boats are not enough, relief operations are poor.’

In the past few days, hundreds of victims like Madhu Devi have arrived here on the regular and special trains commissioned by the Indian Railways to rescue people from Bihar, where the Kosi has changed course flooding vast swathes of Bihar and affecting over 2.5 million people in 1,598 villages spread over 15 districts.

Most victims who have come here are women and children.

There are others too, like Rani Devi and her husband Manu from Madhepura district who have come with their grandchildren to start life afresh after the floods killed their son and daughter-in-law.

As she struggled to quieten the two children, a harried Rani Devi said: ‘The children don’t stop crying. They don’t realise their parents are no more. They are tired and probably sad when we cry. The younger one has been suffering from diarrhoea and we haven’t even been able to get him proper treatment.

‘We worked on a farm there and now that everything is flooded we had to leave. So we came here; maybe we will work as labourers,’ she contemplated.

Said Vinay Odhar, Action Aid coordinator from Bihar: ‘The inadequate livelihood camps and relief camps are forcing victims to migrate to safer places.’

The contents are provided by

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From our Email Inbox for wider reach.

NOT A STORY BUT A TRUE INCIDENT
>
> An Indian man walks into a bank in
> New York City and asks for the loan officer.
> He tells the loan officer that he is going to India on business
> for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000.
>
> The bank officer tells him that the bank
> will need some form of security for the loan,
> so the Indian man hands over the keys
> and documents of new Ferrari parked
> on the street in front of the bank.
> He produces the title and everything checks out.
> The loan officer agrees to accept
> the car as collateral for the loan.
>
> The bank’s president and its officers
> all enjoy a good laugh at the Indian
> for using a $250,000 Ferrari
> as collateral against a $5,000 loan.
> An employee of the bank then
> drives the Ferrari into the bank’s
> underground garage and parks it there.
>
> Two weeks later, the Indian returns,
> repays the $5,000 and the interest,
> which comes to $15.41.
> The loan officer says,
> ‘Sir, we are very happy to have had your business,
> and this transaction has worked out very nicely,
> but we are a little puzzled.
> While you were away,
> we checked you out and found that you are a multi millionaire.
> What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow ‘$5,000′ ?
>
>
>
> The Indian replies:
>
> ‘Where else in New York City can I park my car
> for two weeks for only $15.41
> and expect it to be there when I return”
>
>
> Ah, the mind of the Indian…
>
>
> This is why India is shining

Is Maharashtra the new Bihar?

At best, the state has a few islands of prosperity in a sea of despair. The
situation, in terms of poverty, corruption and crime, is dire, revealing the
skewed priorities of Maharashtra’s ruling elite Ironically, in this age when
state governments have become more competitive, the one state that was
ideally placed to exploit the opening up of the economy is losing out.

rajdeep sardesai

BEYOND THE BYTE A JOURNALIST friend from Patna was recently transferred to
Mumbai. During his many years in Bihar, I had often wondered how he coped
with a daily dose of murder, kidnapping, death, disease (and of course,
Lalu). “This is Bihar, my friend, not your Maharashtra!” he would remind me.
A few days ago, soon after the Malegaon blasts, he smsed: “Your Maharashtra
has become like my Bihar!” Even allowing for a little exaggeration, the
‘Biharisation’ of Maharashtra is no longer a flight of fancy. Sure,
Maharashtra is not a basket case, but cut through the legacy of social
progressiveness and rapid industrialisation, and the bright lights of the
MumbaiPune-Nasik golden triangle rapidly begin to dim. The glitter of
corporate India cannot mask the fact that many parts of the Western Ghats
increasingly resemble the violent chaos and deprivation that characterises
large swathes of the Gangetic plains.

Poverty? Bihar’s poverty figures are undoubtedly much higher, but several
districts in Maharashtra can be statistically compared to the Bimaru belt.
Maharashtra is India’s most industrialised state, contributing almost 14 per
cent of the national industrial output. More than 50 per cent of the state’s
gross domestic product is accounted for by the MumbaiThane-Pune industrial
belt. But the much higher per capita income of Maharashtra cannot mask the
ever-sharpening intraregional inequalities. Just step a 100 km outside
Mumbai into Thane’s Jawahar taluka and you will encounter tribal children
who are dying of starvation. An affidavit filed in the Bombay High Court
last year claimed that as many as 35,000 children in Melghat in Amravati
district were severely malnourished, and more than 5,000 had died in the
last decade.

Unemployment? Yes, in absolute terms, unemployment is much higher in Bihar,
but the rate of growth of unemployment in Maharashtra has steadily crept up.
It is now officially 7 per cent, with five lakh unemployed persons being
added to the list every year. The employment guarantee scheme, which was
once celebrated as a model for the rest of the country, is now a classic
case of how State-sponsored schemes can go horribly wrong. And, while the
service sector grows, the noisy malls cannot mask the fact that Mumbai’s
textile mills have fallen silent, as indeed have the looms of Malegaon and
Bhiwandi.

Agrarian distress? Even given the plight of the marginal farmer in Bihar,
fewer farmers commit suicide in Bihar than in Maharashtra. This, in a state
where almost 65 per cent of the population is still dependent on agriculture
and allied activities. The figures given by the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti
are truly staggering. Since June last year, more than 800 cotton farmers
have reportedly committed suicide, with nearly 200 doing so in the last
eight weeks alone, after the Prime Minister visited Vidarbha and announced a
relief package. Take away the rural prosperity of the sugarcane farmers of
western Maharashtra, and the incomes of the state’s agrarian sector shows a
sharp decline in every other region. Not surprising as even now, more than
60 per cent of the irrigated area is the monopoly of the
politically-influential sugar belt.

Economic mismanagement? Bihar’s treasury may be empty, but Maharashtra, too,
has little to be proud of. The state’s debt has now reached a staggering Rs
1.15 lakh crore and its fiscal deficit has risen sharply from 2.8 per cent
of the GDP in the early Nineties to 5.8 per cent at the turn of the century.
While revenue expenditure grew at an average of 15 per cent per annum during
the last decade, capital outlays increased by just 4 per cent. You have
heard of teachers not being paid salaries for years in Bihar? Well, in
Maharashtra, too, the state government is finding it difficult to pay their
professors on time.

Collapsing infrastructure? Maharashtra’s roads are closer to resembling Hema
Malini’s cheeks than Bihar’s ever will be. But again, the shining
Mumbai-Pune highway does not quite tell the story of the remote corners of
the state or, for that matter, Mumbai city itself, whose potholed roads have
now become not just the matter of a public interest litigation, but a
national joke. Mumbai’s crumbling infrastructure, in fact, is symbolic of a
State machinery that has simply been unable to meet the challenges of the
time. While it is unlikely that you will ever confront the power cuts in
Maharashtra that are taken for granted across Bihar, the fact is that in a
once power-surplus state, the state electricity board has had to resort to
widespread load-shedding. Travel across Marathwada or Vidarbha, and six- to
10-hour power cuts are routine. Even in ur ban pockets, two hours of power
cuts are now par for the course.

Crime? Okay, so doctors are not kidnapped every day in Maharashtra, but
while Bihar’s goons operate in a more primitive environment of capital
accumulation, Mumbai’s underworld has developed far more sophisticated means
of running mafia-like operations, be it in managing real estate or in
controlling extortion rackets. Worse, while Bihar’s criminals might still
use the oldfashioned gupti, Mumbai’s dons have brought in the AK-47 culture
into the heart of the state. From Haji Mastan to Dawood Ibrahim to the
terror gangs of today, the criminalisation of the state has moved from
smuggling gold to smuggling RDX with ridiculous ease. That no other city in
the world has seen as many terror attacks as Mumbai in the last decade is
further proof that the state’s coastline is now an arms-friendly
destination.

Naxalism? We have not had a Jehanabad-like audacious strike in Maharashtra,
but the geography of Naxalism does have the state’s border districts of
Gadchiroli and Chandrapur as important centres. The base may be small, but
the fact is that there is a corner of Maharashtra where Naxal groups have a
persistent influence.

Social harmony? While Maharashtra prides itself on the PhuleShahu-Ambedkar
legacy as having defeated the forces of casteism, the state has unleashed a
Frankenstein’s monster in the shape of communalism. Caste may be the
dominant divide in Bihar, but Maharashtra is now increasingly community
consciousness. The rise of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance through the Nineties
is testimony that Maharashtra’s polity has been susceptible to communal
agendas. The subsequent rise of local Muslim extremist groups – many of them
linked to terror outfits – is proof of how a vicious cycle of hatred and
revenge can rapidly spiral out of control. If there has not been communal
violence after the Mumbai and Malegaon blasts, it is not because of the
state’s secular spirit, but simply because a mix of fear and fatigue has
left the average citizen feeling helpless.

Declining political culture? Bihar’s politicians may be stigmatised as
populist and corrupt, but Maharashtra’s new breed are not very different.
From the disastrous handling of the Dabhol project to the idiotic campaign
against dance bars, the state’s ruling elites have shown a knack of getting
their priorities misplaced. As for corruption, let us get it straight: the
Rs 30,000 crore Telgi stamp scam that flourished under successive
Maharashtra governments makes Lalu’s fodder scam seem like loose change.
Most top Maharashtra politicians today are either real estate sharks or
cooperative chieftains, and often both. In no other state have the means of
rural and urban capital been so effectively linked, manipulated and
monopolised by a handful of leaders as in contemporary Maharashtra. Is it
any wonder that some of the wealthiest politicians in the country come from
the state?

Indeed, islands of prosperity amidst a growing sea of despair is how one
must see Maharashtra. It is ironic that in this age, when state governments
have become more competitive, the one state that was ideally placed to
exploit the opening up of the economy should be losing out. My journalist
friend from Bihar often used to contrast the present crisis of Patna with
the glories of the Pataliputra empire. Maybe, Maharashtra, too, is now
caught in a time warp, surviving on past splendour and not on present
accomplishments.

The writer is Editor-in-Chief, CNN-IBN and IBN 7 sardesai.rajdeep@gmail.com

Floods in India

Secretary-General saddened by loss of life, damage in Bihar; says United Nations stands ready to assist
The following statement was issued on 29 August by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:
The Secretary-General was saddened to learn of the loss of life and damage to property in Bihar, due to flooding. He extends his deepest condolences to those affected, especially to the families of those who have been killed or who are missing.
The United Nations stands ready to assist as required.

KASHMIR

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urges restraint

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has voiced its concern about the recent violent protests in Indian-administered Kashmir that have reportedly led to civilian casualties and restrictions to the right to freedom of assembly and ex-pression.

“OHCHR calls on the Indian authorities and in particular security forces to respect the right to freedom of assembly and ex-pression, and comply with international human rights principles in controlling the demonstrators,” according to a statement issued on 27 August in Geneva.

“The use of force should be proportionate to the threat posed and firearms must only be used in dispersing a violent assembly to protect individuals against an imminent threat of death or serious injury,” it added.

The Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for thorough and independent investigations into all killings that have occurred so far.

OHCHR also called on the demonstrators to use only peaceful means when protesting.

“Leaders of the different protesting groups have a responsibility to ensure that demonstrations are peaceful and that the demonstrators are not carrying sticks, guns or other weapons and refrain from intimidation,” stated OHCHR.

The rapidly growing field of Media Literacy is now emerging and expanding in schools and in other community settings (and at the dinner table!) to look at the role media potentially or actually play in our lives, in our ideas and actions.

Media Literacy teaches people to analyze messages conveyed by the media, consider the commercial or political purpose of the image or message and who is responsible for it, and other ideas that it implies. It increases our ability to react to and appreciate (or not) media images and messages in a genuine and conscious way. It provides information and statistics on media and culture, and provides a set of tools for critical thinking which can be applied to any media “product” or setting . . . And it can be fun, too!
    
 

Why is it so important for women and girls to be conscious and knowledgeable about media?

While it’s true that things have changed in a big way for women in the last thirty years due to lots of women (and some cool men) speaking out and acting for progress and equality for women and girls, there’s more that needs to be done. We’ve got all sorts of new, 21st century kind of challenges, especially important being a girl or woman today—and old problems that still need lots of our attention and energy.

These include: good health; genuine self-esteem; understanding of and comfort with sexuality; relationships based on mutual respect and equality; safety from domestic and sexual violence; goal-setting and career success; sound financial judgment; educated participation in government and democracy; and overall power-sharing in society for women and girls. We’ve still got a l-o-o-o-o-n-g way to go.

For example, women are still twice as likely to live in poverty as men, and violence against women isn’t decreasing at the rates of other crimes. Studies show that many women with equal credentials don’t receive pay or promotional opportunities equal to men. Women’s progress in the highest jobs in corporate America—including some of the largest and most profitable companies in the communications and entertainment media sector—hasn’t progressed as much as was expected. Girls’ education about financial matters isn’t widespread; women’s representation in government doesn’t look like their true numbers in society; and stereotypes of what women should be and should want to be are all over.

So, because in today’s culture, media communicates so much, to so many, so much of the time ….(hey, that’s why they call it “mass” media!), the time is right to look more closely at if and how this new culture packed with commercial media “products” from increasingly powerful media companies is influencing girls and women (and men’s attitudes towards girls and women.). Do these companies and their “products” have girls and women’s best interests for health, confidence, success and progress, or even just entertainment, in mind? If not, what can we do about it?

Educating Girls

A self-fulfilling prophecy?
Closing the gender gap
What you can do

On the Indonesian island of Java, the tropical morning is already hot as ten-year-old Anis climbs down from a bicycle-driven rickshaw on the busy street.

She joins her friends as they enter school to begin grade five. Anis’s mother had to quit school when she was ten, to help support her family by selling homemade tofu. She and Anis’s father share a small dirt-floored home with extended family. They have scrimped and saved to pay for Anis’s tuition, books and uniform. They share Anis’s dream that she might one day become a doctor.

In Canada, primary school is almost free, and children have to go. But in many countries throughout the world, going to school is a privilege. This is especially true for girls. In the developing world, more than 113 million children—nearly two thirds of them girls—don’t have access to a formal education. Of all students who do start school, one third drop out before the fifth grade. Again, most are girls.

Yet investment in girls’ education is the single most effective way to reduce poverty. Educated girls marry later. They have fewer and healthier children. They are better able to care for their children and to provide for their families and themselves. They are more likely to send their own children to school.

A self-fulfilling prophecy?

Discrimination against girls begins at an early age. Social customs often give preference to boys. If poor parents can’t afford fees for all their children, they send their boys to school. If poor communities can’t afford to build separate schools for boys and girls, they favour boys. Girl children often have domestic work and responsibilities that leave little time for school. Families living with HIV/AIDS usually rely on girl children to replace sick adults.

Poverty often prevents parents from paying school fees, and buying uniforms and books. Support services for students, especially child care and safe travel, are expensive and rare. Even when girls make it to school, they often drop out, because the schools don’t meet their needs. The teachers, curriculum and textbooks frequently reinforce gender stereotypes. The lack of female teachers can make girls feel less secure. There may be no sanitation facilities in or near the school. Girl students are especially susceptible to sexual and emotional harassment.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) recognizes that basic education is a human right. So does the international Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 28). CIDA has been helping to educate girls in developing countries for more than 30 years. Through its Action Plan on Basic Education, CIDA supports the following international goals:

• to ensure access to free and compulsory primary education for all by 2015;
• to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005;
• to improve the quality of basic education for all learners.

The widest gender gaps in education exist in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. In rural Bangladesh for example, more than 85 per cent of

people are illiterate. Neglect of girls begins at an early age. So CIDA provides basic education through non-formal classes of 8- to 10-year-olds; 70 percent are girls. The lessons are taught close to home for only three hours a day. So if girls are needed at home, they can still attend class. Nearly 90 per cent of the 1.2 million graduates have gone on to continue their education in regular government schools.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the gender gap is less acute. In fact, in some countries, more girls are enrolled in school than boys. Here, the bigger problems are gender stereotypes in the curriculum and a lack of female role models to inspire girls. To change this, CIDA is improving teacher training, curriculum and materials, and public awareness. For example, amid the dense equatorial rainforest in the interior of Guyana, where the rivers act as highways, local Amerindian women teach the children, using what little education they have. CIDA provides professional training to help these women to become certified teachers. Both boys and girls benefit, since they do not have to leave home to seek a better life.

Elsewhere, different techniques are used. When the Taliban government ruled Afghanistan, forbidding girls to attend school and women to teach, girls were taught by radio. In the southern African country of Zambia, local camps are set up to teach girls. Basic education needn’t cost much. Indeed, the cost of not educating girls is far too high for communities in developing countries and around the world to overlook.

Journalists seek more training.

It’s confirmed: Journalists want training, especially young journalists, those with less than ten years of experience, who say overwhelmingly—82 percent of them—that they would personally benefit “very much” from additional training.
Broadcast journalists are also standouts: Journalists working in TV are more likely—at 71 percent—to say they’d benefit “very much” from training than journalists from any other medium.
Key questions raised by the report: a chance to join the conversation
· Why does leadership training generate far more demand than any other kind? What is it about that makes it so crucial?
· Why are broadcast journalists more interested in training than their peers in other media? Why don’t broadcast newsrooms offer as much in-house training?
· Can training support a stronger culture of ethics and journalism values? Can it help prevent scandals of plagiarism and fabrication?
Introduction
Mae Cheng, an assistant city editor at Newsday and president of the Asian American Journalists Association, thinks earlier and better training could have rescued at least two lost days in her career.
“I was covering the 2000 U.S. Census,” she says. “Before I had any computer-aided reporting training, I got this big map of New York City and I went around the office collecting different colored pushpins, marking the response rates to the Census. I had no idea there was mapping software that could do it in 30 seconds, and other people in the newsroom didn’t know either.
“When I later got CAR training and learned about Excel and mapping software, I kicked myself. I killed a day getting pushpins and another day pushing them into my map.”
Journalists, whether working in print, broadcast or online, want to learn to do their jobs better and smarter.A new study about journalism training, conducted by Urban & Associates, Inc. for The Poynter Institute and News University in 2004, builds on the 2002 study by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the National Council of Journalism Organizations. It says 95 percent of print journalists and 96 percent of broadcast journalists seek more training.That’s up from 89 percent of journalists surveyed in the Knight study.
Results indicate they seek a range of skills and are interested in various forms of learning, including a yearning for more access to e-learning. They want to grow to improve their performance in their current jobs.
“We knew that journalists need and want training, but the appetite for professional development was greater than we expected,” says Karen Brown Dunlap, president of The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla. “Journalists face complicated issues and increased time pressures, sometimes in an environment that provides fewer resources, yet they are determined to produce compelling reports. Training helps.”
The demand is especially high among newer professionals, those with less than ten years experience. While ninety-five percent of respondents said they would benefit from additional training and professional development, respondents under 45 years of age, and those working in journalism for ten years or less, are more likely to perceive the benefits of additional training. Cheng said these results sound similar to what she has heard from AAJA members.
“The findings in this study reflect what we found when we polled our members about what they want from our organization,” Cheng says. “This has been a huge impetus for me to add more value to our membership by adding more training for students and starting journalists, and especially for mid-career members. They, too, still want to learn. Training needs to go on throughout a career.”
The Poynter/NewsU study is aimed at two different constituencies. It is intended to move news organizations that have been reluctant to send people to training. And it will be used by training organizations that will work with those same news organizations.
“We are delighted with this,” says Drew Davis, president and executive director of the American Press Institute in Washington, D.C. “We think this almost perfectly matches the mission of API and validates the things we tell newspaper executives in planning their training and validates our planning.”
Howard Finberg, interactive learning faculty member for The Poynter Institute and project director of News University says, “The Poynter/NewsU study confirms that not only was everything that the Knight Foundation study determined is true, it’s doubly true.”
“It’s another cry to have news organizations put training higher up on their agendas, and not cut the training budget at the first drop in the economic conditions.”
What Hinders Training
What stands between journalists and more training?
Time.
Money.
Accessibility.
“Even when money is not the issue, time is a major factor in decisions about training,” Finberg says.
“Who has time to train in a world where people are just so busy, where staffs are reduced, where both parents work and single parents are often working and where child care is a struggle and many people are starting to care for aging parents as well? For a parent to be gone for even three days is a logistical challenge. The challenge for newsrooms and training organizations is to find innovative ways to meet training needs.”
All survey respondents were asked about their experience with 19 different types of training programs offered within their industry. While clearly not an exhaustive list of all available training, the pattern mirrored that of previous studies. The most frequently-attended seminars or workshops were in-house sessions. Over 81 percent said they had attended one, 55 percent of them in the past year. Training programs offered by press associations were second with 66 percent having attended.
In addition, Poynter/NewsU analyzed three segments of the consumer marketplace – heavy users of training (respondents who’ve attended 7 or more training programs), medium users (4-6) and light users (1-3).
Respondents were presented with 15 different factors and asked how much each would influence their decision to attend a training seminar. Overall, practical content is the primary motivator, with significant proportions of respondents noting that these were “very important” factors:
Acquiring skills to improve performance in their current job (92 percent)
Their personal interest in the seminar/workshop topic (68 percent)
Applicability of the training to organization’s needs (54 percent).
Cost (tuition, accommodations, travel) was a close second behind applicability, mentioned as “very important” by about half of respondents, followed by two additional dimensions of utility:
The ability of the course to help advance a career, and
The opportunity to meet/network with industry professionals.
No other factor—course length, location, faculty, or even recommendations from supervisors—was seen as “very important” by more than one-third of respondents.
“What we would like to see,” joked Skip Foster, editor of North Carolina’s Shelby Star, “is an army of experts who for free will come on-site and personally guide our people for a year.”
While that may not be possible any time soon, 53 percent of respondents reported that their company usually paid all costs associated with a training program. Overall, 14 percent said they paid the costs for training themselves ( the proportion was higher among those working in the broadcast industry). On average, however, 76 percent of the total costs of professional training are borne by the company. A similar distribution is seen when the resource examined is time rather than money: 47 percent of respondents were trained fully on the company’s time, 13 percent on their own time, with an average of 73 percent of the time necessary for preparation, training and travel contributed by the company.
Cheng doesn’t believe it matters in many situations whether a company pays 50 percent or 100 percent of a training program’s costs.
“Once a company finally pays for training,” she says, “it may be the tenth or twentieth time a person asked for it.”
Eighteen different training topics were presented to respondents, who were asked how useful each would be to them. Six were evaluated as “very useful” by more than one-third of respondents, with an interest in Leadership topping the list:
Leadership strategies (61 percent)
Newsroom management skills (55 percent)
Legal issues such as privacy/libel (45 percent)
Ethics and values in journalism (45 percent)
Writing/reporting techniques (41 percent), and
Multimedia news storytelling (33 percent).
Dori Maynard, president of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Oakland, Ca., focuses on the need for leadership training.
“In this industry we don’t do a good job of training.” she says. “The newsroom approach is often, ‘Hey, you’re a good reporter, you could be an editor.’ And if the reporters-turned-editors perform well, they say, ‘I don’t know why anyone else needs training; look how well I did without it!’
“We need our leaders to understand the need for development and execute. The tasks of journalists and media leaders are so much more complicated today.” The Maynard Institute is a 27-year-old organization devoted to training journalism managers of color.
All types of skills need improvement.
“I’d like to see more training in something as fundamental as note- taking,” Cheng says. “I’ve seen reporters come in without quotes because they can’t write fast enough or their tape recorder died. Even senior journalists would find that useful. And while newspaper reporters could once get by with just words, now they have to be more visual. Even if they don’t want to go on that side, I think it would help to understand graphics better. There is so much we should be getting training on.”
Training in specialized topics (e.g.: broadcast reporting, typography) were rated as “very useful” training by respondents employed in those industries, but overall, there are no significant differences in this pattern by respondents of different ages or tenures in journalism.
The 47 percent of respondents who said training in a specific beat or content area would be useful to them were then asked to record what topic would interest them. A subset of topics mentioned frequently includes:
Beats—criminal justice, education, health, environment, lifestyle, religion/values;
Skills—computer-assisted reporting, investigative reporting; and
Management—mentoring/coaching, budgeting/resource planning.
“It’s important to continue teaching new skills,” Cheng says. “When I started a few years ago, there wasn’t much emphasis on computer-assisted reporting. Now you become more accomplished by being able to work through Excel. Or do word searches. The technology changes the way we report stories and I think we should be given training for that.”
Foster says content, not price, would be his first consideration in judging potential training opportunities for his staff.
“If I’m considering training, I’m not even gonna get past issues of content,” Foster says. “If I’m looking for help in using active verbs in my copy — to make something up — if what’s offered is ‘Juggling and Sword-swallowing,’ of course, content is more important than price. Content is the definition of what you’re looking for.”
Once he finds the right content, Foster is ready to deal.
“Our strategy is, let’s find something we can buy for our people,” he says. “The price shouldn’t be as big a factor as it is. But we are in the real world. I don’t think newspapers are unique in trying to balance the realities and need for training with the annual budget. If we can’t buy people a steak, let’s buy them a hamburger. That may still be more than they expected to get.”
Foster is a proponent of expanding programs such as the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association’s traveling campus, as well as low-priced training programs offered by many regional press associations. “It lets me hit everybody with a little bit, as opposed to a few people flying to St. Petersburg and going to a Poynter seminar. I have gotten so much out of my two Poynter experiences. I wish that for everybody. But I can register five people for training within driving distance or spend the same amount on one air ticket alone. The press associations have been sensitive to this, of how can we give cost-effective training. It’s not as good as if they went to Reston for a week, but it’s better than none. And in our newsroom, more people have gotten training in the last couple years than did in the past.”
With the obvious exception of industry-specific skills, there is remarkable homogeneity in the answers of all respondents to the survey. While this is not unreasonable (given the relatively confined demographics of professional journalists), the fact that there are more similarities than differences in the nature of training needs means that professional development organizations have many opportunities to impact journalism excellence, and that they must be prudent in prioritizing and focusing their efforts in areas where they can showcase their unique competence, and preserve their strong brands.
“We’re not in competition with other organizations on the subject of training because the need is that great,” says Poynter President Dunlap. “I see about 10 steps individuals and news organizations can take in professional development, everything from brown bag lunches to one-year or multi-year programs. We need online courses, regional seminars and workshops, and other off-site training, one day, week-long and extended programs such as Neiman—if the industry is going to perform at the level it needs to perform. We need all of it.”
Broadcast
Seventy-one percent of broadcast journalists surveyed by Poynter/NewsU “very much” saw the benefit of additional training and another 25 percent “somewhat” perceived the benefits—96 percent in all; these numbers mirrored the opinions of broadcast executives as well.
The numbers didn’t surprise Deborah Potter, executive director of the Radio & Television News Directors Association & Foundation in Washington, D.C. “I suppose there is a pent-up desire for more training for a couple reasons,” she says. “It’s not commonly offered in-house by broadcast organizations, whereas I think more newspapers do provide it. And there is much less of it to go around for broadcast than print. So it’s supply and demand.”
The issue, she says, is not that more training should be made available.
“The issue is getting support at the corporate level,” Potter says. “And time. And money. A TV station has a smaller staff than a print outlet. So as often as broadcasters may ask to go for training, they don’t get permission. And sometimes they’re not even asking to go because they’re sure they won’t be allowed to.”
E-Learning Potential
For the industry’s nascent e-learning programs, the Poynter/NewsU study provides a reassuring confirmation of need and purpose.
“It validates our belief in e-learning,” Finberg says. “It’s the research evidence that the concept we came up with is valid. The real challenge will be in execution. There is a lot in the study about where we should take e-learning, not just for Poynter, but also on behalf of other journalism organizations.”
Much of the Poynter/NewsU study results go beyond needs for today and look at needs of tomorrow.
Only 18 percent of respondents have had any experience with online education or e-learning, a proportion quite similar to that reported in previous research on professional journalism education. The segments most experienced with online training are individuals employed outside traditional print or broadcast companies, and those with substantial professional training experience.
“It’s interesting that the numbers for online were where they are since such a small number have experienced it,” Peter Bhatia, executive director of The Oregonian, says. “It’s an indicator that more and more people understand that, over the long term, multi-platform delivery of news will be a reality to all of us. Understanding that will be more important with the passage of time.”
When asked how interested they would be in online journalism training, 72 percent of all respondents expressed some interest (32 percent saying they’d be “very interested”). Individuals that live outside the U.S. are particularly interested in online educational opportunities, as are those who are from smaller media organizations.
“I was personally—professionally—stunned when I saw the demand,” Finberg says. “Part of it is that nobody knows yet quite what e-learning is and even fewer had taken an e-learning course. That’s the good news. The challenge is for any organization to come up with courses that meet that high level of expectation. In theory, everybody thinks e-learning is a great thing. We can’t disappoint when they take their first course. That isn’t just a challenge for NewsU and Poynter; that’s a challenge for every organization.”
Respondents were asked the importance of each of 11 potential benefits of e-learning, and more than half of them were identified as “very important” by a majority—suggesting the relative immaturity of expectations of online education. Equal weight is given to the flexibility of access, technical help, one-on-one feedback and low cost, and neither past experience nor degree of interest in online education appears to shape that outlook. When asked to order those attributes, however, a clear winner is flexibility in timing: More than half of all respondents said that the most important motivator stimulating interest in online education is “the ability to take the course whenever your schedule allows.” Currently, then, it appears that the central premise behind potential interest in e-learning is the “time shifting” capacity anticipated by busy journalism professionals.
The AAJA participated in the first NewsU e-learning classes.
“That was really cool for our members,” Cheng says. “We have 2,100 members over 19 chapters. We have members in Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, and England. Our membership is really scattered, but by offering online courses, our people were able to get training without traveling. We had one online student so thankful for this because she just had a baby. The Poynter class was great because they got on whenever they could. It might be daytime here and nighttime wherever they were.”
Almost all respondents answered a question about the primary obstacles to having an effective e-learning experience. While the richness of their ideas cannot be easily captured, it does appear that answers cluster in four major areas. The most frequently-mentioned obstacle to effective e-learning is the perceived lack of the “high-touch” environment of traditional seminars: the one-on-one personal contact available with faculty and other participants. The second and third major clusters of responses had more to do with self-assessment of the respondents than with the attributes of an online seminar: About one-third of the respondents think that time pressures of work and family life—and the discipline required to “make time” for self-directed training—would be a major obstacle to having an effective experience. A significant proportion also perceives that they’re ill-equipped (i.e.: inadequate computer, skills, Internet connection) for satisfactory online learning. Finally, a small proportion doubt whether an online seminar could equal the quality or effectiveness of an in-person training seminar.
Many of these perceived obstacles link to another finding: More than 60 percent of respondents believe they’d be most likely to access online training at home—either after work or on the weekends. While many think they could do the course at work (after the day’s tasks are finished, between other work or during lunch), it’s clear that the segment most interested in e-learning is also most convinced they’d be training on their own time at home.
“Ideally, newsroom managers should embrace e-learning and provide journalists with the time away from the day-to-day chores. Let them do the training as part of their daily routine,” Finberg said. “Allowing a couple hours a week would be a great help in meeting the training needs.”
Fifty-four percent of respondents report that they’d have less than one hour a day to spend with an online training program, and an additional 42 percent report they’d have between one to three hours a day. Respondents who are “very interested” in the concept are more likely to report a higher time capacity than those who are only “somewhat” interested.
News University—this site right here—is a project of the Poynter Institute and is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Its innovative distance-learning programs sharpen journalism skills on the participant’s schedule. NewsU’s courses offer the quality that is Poynter’s trademark at a fraction of the cost, on a schedule that fits with the participant’s work and family commitments. And they don’t replace Poynter seminars. Rather, NewsU’s e-learning modules provide a new form of training that’s more targeted and more flexible than the traditional in-person experience. NewsU offers three kinds of e-learning:
1. Group Seminars. Participants gather in a virtual space, logging in from anywhere, day or night, over the course of several days or several weeks. A faculty member guides the group through new material, moderates discussions, and provides individual feedback.
2. Self-Directed Learning Modules. These are the ultimate in e-learning flexibility: Journalists can start and stop them whenever they like, progressing entirely at their own pace and going back as many times as they want. They make use of interactive Web technology, so they’re much more than mere collections of Web pages.
3. eSeminars. These are live seminars or events broadcast over the Web; participants can tune in from their computer at work or at home and ask questions in real-time. And if they can’t join in live, the seminars are also available as self-directed learning modules.
When asked which kind of training they would prefer—an in-person or online seminar—more than three-quarters of respondents say they’d prefer the former. The minority have had experience with e-learning and are slightly more likely to choose online, but they also prefer in-person seminars.
In the short-term, the concept of e-learning generates a lot of interest among news professionals, especially those that don’t anticipate having easy opportunities to participate in in-person training. Only when potential users can actually see the product (in this case, a handful of online seminar prototypes or, at least, a “catalog” of potential course descriptions) can they make the kind of judgments that can realistically translate into solid metrics of market potential.
“The hunger is really there,” Finberg says. “The question is, ‘What are we really going to do to satisfy the hunger, since it’s unlikely the training dollar spigot will get turned on?’ We’re taking this report about training as a whole and e-learning as a whole and we’re using it. We told the industry that training was important; here’s another study that proves it.”
Finberg says that even if training funds were unlimited, space and available faculty available for on-site programs would still be scarce. There is also the issue of time; most journalism organizations struggle to find enough time for staffs to get away from their jobs and personal lives to travel for training.
“One solution is bring training to them,” Finberg says. “Either in their newsrooms, in more regional short term training sessions, or through the magic of the information age we live in, a.k.a., the Internet.”
Training as Scandal Prevention?
In both the Poynter/NewsU’s survey and the Knight Foundation’s research, legal issues and ethics training were ranked high. The Poynter/NewsU study didn’t directly address whether more training would reduce the incidents of ethical misconduct and plagiarism that have scandalized journalism, but many journalists believe more training will give the industry a shot of prevention.
“We have summer interns who come in to Newsday with degrees in journalism, but they could use continual training,” Cheng says. “I think it helps to keep talking about ethics. Starting reporters come to me and say, ‘I went on an assignment and they offered me dinner. Should I have taken it?’ Or, ‘They offered me gifts, should I take them?’
“I’m looking for an instructor to teach ethics to our members,” Cheng says. “I want something more philosophical because the classes we’ve offered so far have been more skills-oriented.”
Today, there is less formal training in the average newsroom from direct supervisors. “A lot of us can remember editors who taught us,” Dunlap says. “Now editors have other demands, including endless meetings. They don’t see the time to coach. A college professor told me recently that young journalists are leaving because they aren’t being trained; they aren’t learning. We’ve heard this before. They’re not leaving because of salaries, but because they don’t think they are growing.”
Maynard thinks it may be time that the journalism industry starts requiring continuing education programs for its practitioners, much as professional associations from physicians to engineers and insurance agents demand for their members.
“Many industries require you to keep up,” Maynard says. “I think it’s important that we do that. The public’s expectations of the news media have changed. If we aren’t providing people in the industry with the ability to be current, how can business practices stay current in legal and ethical training?”
Bhatia, executive editor of The Oregonian and a past-president of ASNE, thinks most journalists could use a reminder of how ethics and values play out on a daily basis.
“There is a need for a re-emphasis of the importance and value of getting things right and for ethical newsgathering,” he says. “I think training should be part of an overall game plan to wipe this out. It’s time. As an industry we need to address this and not write Jack Kelley and Jayson Blair off as aberrations. Ninety-eight percent of cops and politicians are ethical but it’s that bad two percent that get the headlines. And it’s that bad two percent that’s defining us as well. We have to address it head on.”
What’s Next?
Now that the need for training has been confirmed and further quantified, what’s the next step?
“After the study by the Knight Foundation, they launched an information campaign to increase the funds that go into journalism training,” Dunlap says. “Those who care about professional development need to join the campaign.”
Another emphasis likely to be advanced by the Poynter/NewsU study is that if journalists can’t or won’t come to the mountains for training, the mountains must find their way to journalists even more than they do today, both in person and via the Internet.
Regional workshops have been a big success with smaller newspapers. They are an inexpensive draw that allow journalists to get much needed training.
“The problem is when news organizations think that’s all they need,” Dunlap says. “The industry needs the full range of programs.”
Bhatia says that news organizations that can’t budget for big-name, off-site training programs should be more creative. “We’re a newspaper that already has a substantial commitment to training,” Bhatia says. “We engage in a whole range of training, from Spanish classes for staffers to bringing in people from all over the country to talk to us. Even through the tough times of the last few years, we’ve still found ways to keep the level of training opportunities high. For example, by having our best investigative reporters do seminars on FOI or beat development, there remains the opportunity for people to be exposed to good thinking and good talent. We also do in-house awards with outside people serving as judges, and then we have them come in and do seminars. What this survey does is reaffirm what we already believe to be true. Journalists understand there is no such thing as being too good. We should always be committed to expanding our skills sets.”
Poynter and other organizations offer fellowships and seek contributions for scholarships to assist journalists who can’t afford development programs. According to Dunlap, it’s time for print and broadcast organizations to dig deeper into their pockets and supply both the demand and need for enhanced training.
“The study supports the idea that Poynter should no longer subsidize training to the degree it does,” she says. “The news industry needs to pick up a greater share. We need to serve the need but find greater resources.”
Fundraising for news associations has been tough in recent years. But while newspapers aren’t willing to write a check for certain kinds of training, organizations such as AAJA are finding opportunities to partner with news organizations that will host on-site training programs for them. “The St. Paul Pioneer-Press and New York Times are paying for our members to fly in for seminars and workshops,” Cheng says. “AAJA doesn’t make a dime on it, but it’s a great opportunity for our members. Our mid-career members have been able to benefit.”
Another challenge for professional development organizations desiring to benefit from the Poynter/NewsU study will be selling its merits to skeptical or budget-conscious journalism corporations.
“We have to make the bottom-line case that there’s value beyond the intrinsic,” Potter says. “I don’t think there is a radical difference between print and broadcast groups. The argument has to be made to managers and owners that there is a business case for additional training.”
Methodology
The Poynter/NewsU study was designed to provide strategic information in the overall structure of training and professional development needs among journalists and the characteristics of the potential e-learning market.
To accomplish these objectives, two interlocking questionnaires were developed: one to be administered to alumni, focused on evaluations of Poynter, and another for non-alumni that generated detail on the potential for online learning. Both questionnaires contained the same battery of questions on underlying training needs, as well as key questions on the respondent’s interest in e-learning. Because this research was not intended to quantify Poynter’s share of market or competitive position, all aspects of the questionnaire and sample design were oriented toward maximizing the amount of discrete data that could be collected (including a number of opportunities for respondents to provide extensive written responses to open-ended questions), and toward maximizing the sample size and diversity of the respondent pool. As such, the surveys were administered by mail and online: subsuming the desire for a fully representative sample of respondents to the requirement of providing a rich and detailed data set.
Both the mail and online samples were address-specific, with names randomly drawn from two major sources. Poynter’s database of seminar and workshop attendees was the basis for the alumni sample: first it was cleaned of student names (high school and university) and then it was randomly-sampled for both the mail-out and online portion of the survey. (NOTE: All potential respondents outside the U.S. were included in the online survey.) For the non-alumni sample, a set of industry association lists were merged (Poynter’s non-alumni list, Bacon’s, SND, NABJ, NAHJ, IRE, RTNDA, AAJA) and randomly sampled.
In all, 7,004 surveys were mailed out during the weeks of November 17 and 24, 2003, and the online portion commenced with email invitations sent to 5,317 individuals on December 2, 2003. Responses were collected until December 29, 2003. The final sample comprises of 2,552 respondents: 809 Poynter alumni (a 25.4 percent response rate) and 1,743 non-alumni (a 19.1 percent response rate).
In short, 60 percent of the responses were obtained from individuals working in print (daily or weekly newspapers and magazines), 27 percent from those working in broadcast (television and radio) and 13 percent from other related journalistic organizations, including online, trade groups, and news services.
All phases of the research (i.e.: questionnaire and sample design, cleaning/keypunching of the database, transcription and coding of verbatim responses, data tabulation and analysis) were completed by Urban & Associates, Inc. The size of the sample, as well as the strict quality controls imposed at each step of the process, mean that on sampling procedures, interviewing and data processing, mean that at the total market level, the percentages contained in this report are statistically accurate to within +/- 2 to 3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.