Kolkata: eNewsroom is an online platform that focuses on news from ‘Tier-2’ India, for that is where a major chunk of the Indian population lives outside of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
This is the India that gets forgotten and this initiative by former ‘mainstream’ journalists is trying to address that gap.
But while we as an organisation, is looking to be sustainable in the long run, we believe the need of the moment is the sudden spurt in crimes against women or gender violence go unnoticed in Mainstream media.
The Guardian had recently carried an article with a screaming headline — India’s abuse of women is the biggest human rights violation on Earth. It said, India is at war with its girl and women, and also mentioned that the tragic rape cases have shocked the country, but the everyday suffering of 650 million Indian women and girls goes unnoticed.
The NCRB data indicates that, in 2016, number of cases related to rape of minor girls has increased by 82 per cent. In most cases, these victims get further victimized due to social prejudice, insensitive media coverage and lack of support by the civil society. Only the socking cases—Delhi (2012), Kathua, Unnao have been able to move the society. Unfortunately rape is a political weapon in India. And Cobrapost’s sting operations proved how major media houses could go to any extent to support ruling dispensation. MSM can even demean heinous crime like gangrape.
Thus eNewsroom has decided to setup a separate section —Gender Violence Watch, under which we will do stories related to rape, child sex abuse, atrocities committed on transgender and acid attack survivors among others. For this section we will be reporting or highlighting cases from across India, so gender violence can see a downward trend in the world’s largest democracy.
Understanding the need of the hour, crowdfunding platform– CrowdNewsing has started the campaign– Dn’t Reduce Violence Against Women To Statistics, for eNewsroom.
We often complain about the declining quality of journalism, here is a chance for you to make a difference to the type of stories being reported. Contribute as little as the price of a burger you much on, but do contribute towards bringing about a change.
Come, let’s not reduce our struggles to just statistics. Let’s come together and support this initiative to make India safer for its daughters.
