Experts enrich ABU India workshops on gender bias in media

Participants who attended ABU/UNESCO workshops in India on gender in the media were treated to an array of experts in the field of equality for women and girls.

The workshops based on the Broadcasting for All – Focus on Gender project were organised by the ABU as part of UNESCO’s Global Alliance on Media and Gender at the YWCA in New Delhi and at Palam Vihar in the next door state of Haryana.

The three-day workshops were held to sensitise participants to gender issues in the country and discuss how the media can be active partners in addressing those issues.

Speakers included program makers and journalists, broadcasting managers, academics and women’s rights activists. Ms Usha Bhasin, former Additional Director General of Doordarshan, Board member of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and Channel Head at DD Bharati, and Ms Moneeza Hashmi, President of the CBA and General Manager at Hum TV in Pakistan, were two of the workshop leaders.

Ms Bhasin said she was happy to be able to organise, in a short time, workshops in the two states that “remain critical on the gender map of India”.

“Haryana, with lowest ratio of women to men – 832 to every 1000men – has the dubious distinction of importing brides from southern states,” she said. “In the background of horrendous rape cases, the partnership with police was very timely.

She said the more affluent area of South Delhi too shared the blemish of adverse sex ratio and she was glad that attendees included some brilliant students from institutions that rank among the top media schools in the country, some filmmakers and a news producer from CNN IBN.

“They asked for more,” she said.