This was an enthralling panel discussion featuring prominent women journalists from across India, who are leading ground zero coverage of the pandemic. The session was held on June 2, 2021, and eminent speakers of the session were Vijaita Singh (The Hindu, Delhi), Tanushree Pandey (Indian Today, Delhi), Dr. Tabeenah Anjum (Sr. Journalist, Rajasthan), Safina Nabi (Independent journalist, Kashmir), Somya Lakhani (Independent Journalist, Delhi), Anusha Ravi Sood (The New Indian Express, Bengaluru).
The session started with Safina Nabi talking about “How this year’s second wave of the pandemic has shaken the country upside down."
She continued saying that there was transparency in previous years statistics about the ongoing number of cases, recovery rates exact scenario was known to people.
She further mentioned, "This year is all about speculations, there’s no correct data about anything people are just assuming and no government authorities are coming forward holding any health-related press conferences, unlike the previous year.”
Nabi also mentioned the rumours and misinformation that is circulating all over she named a few Kabinagar’s temple can shy away Corona. In Kashmir even this misinformation spread out which says that vaccination will lead to Infertility for women, doctors are going beyond their capacity to spread awareness about the misinformation’s but there needs to proper campaigns for this sensitive issue.
She also pointed out the fact and said, “Kumbhmela lead to outrageous widespread of coronavirus, a huge number of people gathered there so, these mistakes lead to fatal consequences."
Tanushree Pandey shared facts on the aspects of misinformation about the vaccines, which is spreading like wildfire and blocking the ways of the vaccination process. After the elections got over in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and the Kumbh Mela there was a sudden spike in the number of cases, the death rates were increasing there was a shortage of beds, hospitals, ambulances, medicines and even medical faculty, but all we could do is speculate there was no correct data, people were assuming the scenario was pathetic.
Venuka Khandelwal the host of the session posed some questions for the speakers and Hari Prasad were assisting the event.
The first question was For Dr. Tabeenah that how news reporting is different from medical reporting?
Dr. Tabeenah said, "When a journalist is covering a health story that concerns a doctor. Consulting a doctor is very important, it’s a policy issue all of it concerns empathy, Doctors intervention is prime for Medical Reporting.”
She further added that there are fake news and misinformation about the current scenario in the country many times it has happened “journalist follows up a false case because of the fake SOS" that flows all over on social media platforms.
Anusha Ravi Sood was asked to talk about Government and its policies where she made some important points. She said that the Indian government is irresponsible towards the health sector of the country, Union Budget during such a fiscal year gave only 0.34% importance to the health sector. She also talked about how important it is to track the source news is coming from to avoid misinformation reliable journalist and resource is important.
Vijaita was questioned - "Can Active Journalism Influence the Health Policy of India?"
In response to that, she said, “A reporter’s aim is to bring out the truth always." She described how difficult it gets to keep the focus on health when there is news regarding a bomb blast, a celebrity getting married or political policies. Thus, it’s difficult but it is the job of the journalist to do it.
Somya Lakhwani was questioned about how we can prevent ourselves from Covid-19 Pandemic and what are the measures and condition on the Mental Health of the journalists during such a time of crisis.
She answered, “Mental health of a journalist depends on the organization they work in and how mental conciliation is happening." She also talked about the ‘young journalists’ and she says that they are petrified and all this has affected their mental peace. She further added that the condition of photojournalist is pathetic and they are having mental exhaustion.
There was a quick round of opinions on what’s happening around and every speaker got a min each to speak about the changes/measures they want.
Tanushree said, “Door to Door vaccination drive is very important, put halt to inconvenience, open up more centres in rural areas, COWIN portal to resolve technical glitches".
Safina said, “There needs to be the availability of Central-surveillance centre bed, medicines, slots, ambulances, injections and medicines."
Dr. Tabeenah said, “We should have more oxygen production manufacturing oxygen, proper policy, place priorities right and very important question our nation How equipped are we? And are we prepare for the next. "
Anusha Ravi Sood concluded the panel session by saying it is not the right time to build infrastructure, it is the time we work on our loopholes and continue with the fight with the deadly Coronavirus and win it.
Author:
Ruchika Dubey
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