Doordarshan’s DD Urdu, after its five years of establishment, is not able to set up any infrastructure.
According a survey done by Delhi based Media Studies Group, no permanent appointment has been made so far for 80 centres of DD Urdu across the country.
There are only 6 permanent employees in DD Udru’s Delhi centre, , of which 4 are administrative. This information have out after the Group, filed an application under RTI act asking details about DD Urdu from Delhi, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Hyedrabad, Kolkata, Patna and other 80 centers of Doordarshan.
And the findings of this survey are published in the first issue of the Group’s Journals, Jan Media (Hindi) and Mass Media (English), to be released on 2nd April in national capital.
DD Urdu came into existence on August 15, 2006 following a Governmental commitment in the Parliament made in response to an un-starred question No. 2026 regarding launch of Urdu Channel. The language Channel, as it exists today, is on air for 24 hours from November 14, 2007, encapsulating heritage, culture, literature, information, education & societal issues specific to a target audience.
Its mandate, inter-alia, is to re-popularize the idiom, the syntax and the lingual behaviour purported to have gone into oblivion over the years. The survey done by Journalist and Researcher Avaneesh on behalf of the Media Studies Group is a comparative survey with respect to its “objectives and human resources”.
The survey further reveals, there are no separate staffs and arrangements for DD Urdu, the works are done by the staffs of Doordarshan. Similarly, at these centers there not set up of production for Urdu program. At Delhi’s centre, there are 6 permanent officials, 1 deputy general director, 1 section officer, 1 program producer, 1 producer, 1 ADP and 1 ADG. Apart from this, there are 18 more staffs in Urdu section: all are either temporary or contractual.
At Lucknow centre there number of staffs is 11, similarly in Hyderabad 29, at Kolkata 21, and at Patna it is 6. At Ahmedabad centre, a program in Urdu called ‘Anjuman’ being broadcasted; it is produced by Ishu Desai.
The study concludes, the channel lacks both concrete policies and human resources, hence not been able to fulfil the desired goals, outlined at the time of its establishment.
About Media Studies Group, India (MSGI)
The Media Studies Group, India, (MSGI) is a collective of journalists, who have been involved research and training of the students of Journalism & Mass communication and social campaigns for non-profit purposes.
The MSGI has conducted many surveys to study media and its impact on the society. Besides this, it has published a lot of reading materials, valuable to researchers, academicians and media professionals. And it often organizes various types of public interest activities at its own level.On 2nd April it is launching its two monthly media research journal, Jan Media (Hindi) and Mass Media (English). The journals are being edited by veteran journalist, Anil Chamadia.
Source:
For this survey, factual data were collected from various Doordarshan centers in India by invoking requisite information through the use of Right to Information Act, 2005.
Detailed Information was sought from 87 centers of Radio and Doordarshan regarding the staffs working (either on permanent or contract basis or in any other manner) for Urdu channel.