Speaking at an inaugural residential workshop on journalism for students hailing from rural backgrounds, scheduled castes, and other marginalised communities, N. Ram, one of India’s most respected journalists, stated that the lack of social diversity in the country’s newsrooms is a matter of concern. Having an awareness about institutional segregation, he added, is not enough; what is necessary is the enforcement of change and for that State intervention is a must. A socially underrepresented newsroom is not only a travesty of the principle of justice; it also blunts the media’s ability to tell stories of the life and the times of the Other India. But the lack of diversity is not a feature of newsrooms only; it is a pervasive feature of Indian institutions. Reserved posts for SCs, scheduled tribes and other backward classes remain vacant in Central universities — the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has described this as a wilful conspiracy to keep bahujan communities away from education. The marginalised are barely visible in the boardrooms of corporate India and private firms. Political representation of the marginalised in Houses of legislature, or in the tiers of the judiciary — even though it is not as minuscule as it was before — is not quite even. All this is apart from the myriad, everyday violence that is perpetrated on those occupying the margins of social acceptability and also the national consciousness. These grim realities are indicators of not just embedded discrimination; they are also a testament to the fact that the fruits of India’s reservation policy continue to be plucked by a handful of constituencies.
A question must therefore be asked; a hypocritical rhetoric called out. Diversity, it is said, is integral to India’s identity. It is consistent with and complementary to the spirit of pluralism that is also an ideal for this republic. But a shadow falls between diversity as an idea and its praxis. While the nation’s minders seem to be receptive to diversity at the level of an idea, implementing it — making India’s institutions truly representative — remains a formidable challenge. Reservation has only delivered patchy results. Political pledges towards the emancipation of the socially disadvantaged have been hollow. The country still awaits the perfect strategy that would bridge the gap between diversity as an idea and its reality.