Like most of the fellow Indians, till 10-Oct-2014, I've never heard of his name. Nobel prizes are not announced out of thin air. Extensive evaluations are done on the nominations. Even the fact that an Indian was on the shortlist should have made the news, but our media was so bankrupt on information about this personality so that some of them even quoted the wikipedia articles blindly.
This day kind of made me aware how hollow the Indian media system is. The so called grass-root journalism - even if it is done - rarely gets the deserved attention. To a public which enjoys gossips & cleavage talk much more than anything like this, Indian news channels spit out a continuous stream of that.
All that even the well networked channels like NDTV could do is to trace couple of children saved by him - tell them to narrate their stories.
I took a look at Satyarthi's Wikipedia page as well. There are 13 'awards & honours' including the Nobel 2014 listed there. But whats striking is that, there is not even a single Indian accolade. So whose fault it is ? Media's fault in failing to highlight his work ? The Indian system's fault in failing to support people like him ? Or the Indian public's apathy in turning a blind eye towards the social issues ? I think it is a collective failure in which you and me are a part of.
PS:- The important factor in Satyarthi's work is that, its not just about rescuing a child worker -which many can do - It is also about creating an eco-system or enabling environment for the kids to study & develop themselves without ever wanting to go back to the clutches of exploitative employers.
This day kind of made me aware how hollow the Indian media system is. The so called grass-root journalism - even if it is done - rarely gets the deserved attention. To a public which enjoys gossips & cleavage talk much more than anything like this, Indian news channels spit out a continuous stream of that.
All that even the well networked channels like NDTV could do is to trace couple of children saved by him - tell them to narrate their stories.
I took a look at Satyarthi's Wikipedia page as well. There are 13 'awards & honours' including the Nobel 2014 listed there. But whats striking is that, there is not even a single Indian accolade. So whose fault it is ? Media's fault in failing to highlight his work ? The Indian system's fault in failing to support people like him ? Or the Indian public's apathy in turning a blind eye towards the social issues ? I think it is a collective failure in which you and me are a part of.
PS:- The important factor in Satyarthi's work is that, its not just about rescuing a child worker -which many can do - It is also about creating an eco-system or enabling environment for the kids to study & develop themselves without ever wanting to go back to the clutches of exploitative employers.
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