God made village, man city. Village has fields, barns, river, pond, gardens, chirping birds, mooing cows. Nature resides there in its entirety. Bharat Mata lives in village. Bapuji had said 'India's soul lives in village. Sumitranandan Pant had described village as 'an open chest of emeralds'. With passage of time, cities kept on growing, villages continued to be plundered. Now villages are also imitating cities. City has started exploiting village. Journalism is itself freedom where there is repression and exploitation.

India's journalism is an offshoot of freedom struggle. In one way or the other, freedom fighters were associated with journalism. They brought out newspapers and wrote in newspapers. Their aim and object was to rid India of the yoke of slavery. They succeeded in this goal. We got freedom. After independence journalism met the same fate as politics. We came from villages but went on forgetting them.

Till obtainment of independence journalism was a mission. Now it has become a profession. A news explosion has been witnessed after emergence of electronic media. I am pleased when even small news is flashed on electronic channels. But the village journalism has not come to the fore with the intensity in which it should have. Standard of journalism in the cities is measured in terms of ties with politicians and bureaucrats sitting in the galleries of power. What would one get for solving problems of village? City stands for pelf, fame, moolah. But village has the news, original news. Breeze of change is blowing in village. Rural economic system has undergone change. People's lifestyle has changed. Laborious rural lads are leading in academic and administrative fields. Media should also cast its eye on this pleasant change.

Lord Krishna was associated with village, was active in redressing the problems prevailing at that time. Society made him God. Lord Ram went to villages from city. His exile was associated with the then 'rural journalism'. When he marched ahead, he apprised himself of problems prevailing in rural areas and talked to villagers. He started to be associated with public life. Not only Shri Ram, but Sitaji also used to hold talks with rural women.

At those times, villages and forests were plundered by demons. Whoever raised voice against it was killed. Therefore, Shri Ram had called a 'press conference' before departing from Chitrakoot and had announced that 'I will rid this earth of plunderers and Shri Ram's message was so much publicized by saints and sages living in their Ashrams that Ravan and entire Lanka started to believe that Shri Ram was a God. Though Shri Ram got better of Ravan physically, but much before that he was defeated mentally by the then 'media'. Shri Ram was a man when he had departed from Ayodhya but it was due to rural journalism that he became a God on his return to Ayodhya after 14 years.

At this juncture, I would like to mention two journalists who have promoted rural journalism. The proponent of 'Village Journalism' is America's Rudy Evramson. He was the role model for rural reporters. He founded 'Rural Journalism Institute' in America. Till his last breath he continued to strive to serve people through reporting. Throughout his life he continued to be stranger for himself and 'general importance' had no place in his life. He organized a national convention on rural journalism in America.

There is a similar journalist in our country too. He is Shri P Sainath of The Hindu who is editor of 'rural affairs' in that newspaper. He has coined the term 'Voice of India' (Bharat ki Awaz). Sainath is the leading light in the world of rural reporting. He has penned 84 reports on rural India. 'Everybody Loves A good Drought' is his famous book. Still these days, Shri Sainath lives for 280 days a year in villages with a view to apprising himself of realities of rural areas. He was bestowed Raman Megsaysay Award in the year 2007 apart from many other honours. He believes that one should know complete history, geography and climate etc of the area where one goes for reporting.

The major rural problems revolve around agriculture, health, rites and traditions, bias, poverty, malnutrition, devastation of forests, exploitation of mineral resources etc. Some of the NGOs are rendering good services in the rural areas while others are minting money. Media should have an eye on such organisations as well. The real objective of rural journalism is attracting attention towards masses' problems.

It is expected from the officers to Department of Public Relations to visit villages. There are a lot of issues about which they might not be able to write. But at least they can apprise the administrative officers about them. This would pave the way for redressal of these problems. The work of Public Relations Department people would improve further if they get themselves associated with masses. The minutest thing becomes important at the high level. Keep reporting to your senior officers. Efforts should be undertaken by Public Relations officer that they become abreast of possible incidents before they are flashed by media.

Newspapers are now devoting more space to rural areas as compared to earlier times. But the society as well as government would have to give a serious thought to rural reporters' safety and security.