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Nandini Oza
Nandini Oza

ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS

This newspaper highlights real issues of poll-bound Gujarat

navsarjan-trust-newspaper Social activists Gagan Sethi (L) and Martin Mackwan

Even before the real electioneering has begun in Gujarat and candidates of the BJP and the Congress are yet to file their nomination papers, the war of words between the arch rivals have already begun. The social media is abuzz with photographs, sarcastic comments and cartoons. 

However, the real debate on development appears to have taken a backseat. To give a voice to the problems faced by the poor and marginalised across the state, Navsarjan Trust, working with the dalits, has come out with a 16-page newspaper of sorts.

Titled Gujarat Vikas Samachar (Gujarat Development News), the first copy was released in Ahmedabad on Saturday. It has been brought out by Dalit Shakti Publication of the Navsarjan Trust.

Neeruben Chorasiya of Bhavnagar, who surveyed a few villages, said that while tall claims are made about development, young girls are doing petty jobs for Rs 150 per day despite having obtained a BBA degree. What would be the result if more villages were surveyed, she wondered.

Founder of Navsarjan Trust, Gagan Sethi said that in the days to come, the newspaper would reach about 400 to 500 villages of the state. The publication carries case studies and articles on malnutrition, breach of human rights, exodus by dalits, poor education standards and much more.

The idea is to bring to fore the problems faced by the poor across the state, Martin Mackwan of Navsarjan Trust, said, adding that they decided to highlight the problems in form of newspaper as people take newspapers seriously. He, however, lamented that majority of the problems reflected in Gujarat Vikas Samachar are not highlighted in mainstream newspapers.

Manjula Makwana from Jasdan in Saurashtra said that though widows were given a monthly pension of Rs 800-1,000, it was too less to make their two ends meet. “She (the widow) has to go for work, leaving behind her young children, and the latter's studies are affected,” Makwana said. 

Mentioning about the discrimination with the dalits, Narendra Parmar of Patan district in North Gujarat said that the district, in the recent past, has seen a large number of families leave their native villages to settle somewhere else due to discrimination. He said that there are still villages where in tea stalls dalits are not given tea in routine cups but are given in use and throw cups. “The barber also does not cut their hair,” he claimed.

Mackwan said that they hoped to bring out the edition once in a month but before the elections it could be brought out once in a fortnight. 

These narratives need to come out, Sethi said, adding that while in the mainstream publications the headlines are Moody's and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), here it is Human Development Index (HDI).

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