Yahoo Finance Kerala Budget Announces Press Club With Accommodation Facility For Women Journalists
Having a Women’s Press Club had been a far cry for Kerala until two years ago when a conclave organised by women journalists of Network of Women in Media and Kerala Media Academy suggested that the state must have its own Women’s Press Club. On January 15, the Finance Minister of Kerala, Thomas Issac, announced that a press club for women journalists will be set up in the state, as part of the budget for the financial year 2021-22. The press club will also have an accommodation facility, stated the Kerala FM.
A senior journalist from Kerala, who served in The Indian Express for over a decade and was also a part of the conclave when the proposal was made in Kozhikode, Sarita Varma, applauded the announcement. “Gender has been a very active subject in Kerala’s media industry in the last decade because there has been a sudden surge of women journalists in the state especially after media became multi-dimensional,” Sarita added.
She highlighted the main issues women journalists face in the state and said that for the first two decades of her career, there weren’t many women journalists in the state. “When more women started to become journalists here, traditionally male-dominated media was unsettled by the rapid growth of women journalists. They did not understand how to navigate gender-specific needs like maternity benefits, accessibility etc. So a kind of battle of the sexes started to happen within the media community here and it manifested in severe forms in many controversial cases,” she said.
Sarita also said that due to various safety concerns for women journalists, women journalists had also approached Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to form a body that monitors the gender-sensitive issues of women journalists. “Press clubs, in general, are also a male bastion with little representation of women at management level. They have a very protective and paternal gaze towards women’s issues which denies us of equal opportunities. So more than asking for a separate press club, we had asked for women-centric facilities as basic as women’s washrooms in the existing press club,” she added.
She emphasised that women journalists also need sanitary napkin vending machines and other facilities which makes their job more accessible. While the FM has also announced hostel facilities for women journalists, Sarita points out that it must be one without curfew timings since even working women’s hostels have curfew timings but journalists cannot afford to have that.
Sarita retired from her job only last year but she continues to write in English and Malayalam.
Also read: Kerala Govt Announces Education Scholarship, Wedding Grant for Transgender Persons
(Edited by Kanishk Singh)
