Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Dec 7: A two-day workshop on ‘Media and Gender’ began today in Kashmir University.
The workshop is being organized by the University’s Media Education Research Centre (MERC) in collaboration with Population First, a Mumbai based NGO.
Supported by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the first day of the workshop was attended by many journalists, administrators, academicians, legal experts and a number of media students. The workshop over the course of two days, aims to elaborate on gender sensitive reporting in media and also lay focus on falling sex ratio.
Welcoming the guests and participants, Coordinator MERC, Faruq Masudi endeavoured to make the workshop participative and result oriented.
In his keynote speech, Naseer Ganai, a noted journalist with India Today Group, emphasized on how local media lacked in reporting woman issues since there was a dearth of female journalists in the profession. “There has been lesser work done on projection of woman psychology, her thoughts, and her aspirations in Kashmir. My journalism colleagues and editors in New Delhi ask me why they do not see stories that talk about what women want in Kashmir?” observed Ganai.
Director Population First, Dr A L Sharda, emphasized on the positive change local and national media houses can bring by covering women-centric issues.
On the occasion, District Magistrate Srinagar, Dr Haneef Balkhi said that gender bias and exploitation was a human defect. “Nature has amply offered roles to both the genders however any exploitation as such happens only when humans deviate from the basic laws and put forward their own defective ideas,” he said.
Deputy Superintendent of J&K Police, Nighat Aman said that women are strong enough to brace various roles in the society and rub shoulders with men. “I was one of the first female officers in J&K Police back in 90s, the job has made me stronger and given a position of advantage and acceptance,” Aman said.
Zehru-un-Nissa and Toyeba Pandit also expressed their views.
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