Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

A satisfying job

Mr. N. Ram has made a strong exposition of the role of the media in highlighting deprivation (Aug. 21). He spoke about the role of the Eenadu in highlighting suicides by handloom weavers. But it was Frontline that focussed on the suicides in its issue dated December 6, 1991 devoting 34 pages, complete with the list of 53 weavers of Chirala who committed suicide.

Following this, Noam Chomsky, the Nobel Laureate, wrote: "I wish we had magazines like Frontline in the United States." Pragada Kotiah, a respected leader of the Handloom Weavers Congress who was a Member of Parliament, had a hundred copies of the Frontline issue distributed among MPs and had a one hour discussion, which resulted in Government action to stop the suicides. A group from Japan, which saw the magazine in the Indian Embassy in Tokyo, formed themselves into a "Friends of Chirala" group, visited Andhra Pradesh, and built houses for the weavers. As The Hindu 's Chief of Bureau at Hyderabad, I also contributed an article to the Frontline issue, and have a sense of satisfaction that our efforts helped the disadvantaged sections.

R.J. Rajendra Prasad,
Hyderabad

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