Woman and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath has asked the Government-appointed ‘High-level Committee to Improve the Status of Women’ to submit a report on improving the working conditions of women journalists in the country.
Worried about the odd work timings, loss of seniority due to maternal leave and security issues among working women journalists, Tirath, who was chairing the consultation on Tuesday, asked the committee consisting of senior journalists Neerja Choudhary and Pamela Philipose to give concrete measures to help the cause of women journalists.
“All women professionals, especially women in the media industry, their work conditions, long hours, as well as their safety and security concerns are the issues which need to be reflected upon. The committee should suggest steps to improve their working climate,” said Tirath.
Tirath said that the past few months have seen an upsurge of media activism. “In the Nirbhaya case in particular, the media played a vital role in moulding public opinion and harnessing outrage that ultimately led to very significant amendments to the Criminal laws pertaining to rape and violent crimes against women,” she said.
She said that the goal of this consultation was to encourage the media to be a trailblazer for gender justice and female emancipation in the upcoming years.