Hyderabad, December 30: Vice President of India Hamid Ansari expressed concern over the decline in the percentage of Urdu speakers to total population.
Speaking after inaugurating the World Urdu Editors conference at Jubilee Hall here on Friday, the Vice President said that despite the overall increase in population, the population of Urdu speakers has registered a noticeable decline.
Asking the Urdu editors to focus on young readers, he said that the Urdu newspapers were too focused on the older age groups.
“The development stories, of particular interest to the youth, thus tend to be down played; by the same logic, older and familiar grievances remain disproportionately in focus. Responsible publications can perhaps do more to mould taste and cajole the readership in the direction of contemporary issues,” Hamid Ansari said.
The Vice President also elaborated on the problems and challenges being faced by the Urdu media which, according to him, were related to resources, advertisements, news gathering methodology and adaptation to new technology. “Each of these is related to size and demands of readership.
A good newspaper, however, should cater both to public demand and to the need to shape this demand. Only then would it be in a position of opinion-maker,” he said adding that the news coverage needs to move away from the purely sectional interest to what would satisfy a wider audience.
Governor ESL Narasimhan reminded that Urdu papers were the first vernacular media to experience the rigours of censorship in British India.
“After our first war of independence broke out in 1857, English newspapers of the day campaigned for strict restrictions against them. Obviously they wanted to crush Urdu newspapers which had adopted an anti-British tone as well as an anti-colonial disposition,” he said.
The Governor hoped that the Urdu editors would play an active role in protecting the high standards of Urdu journalism.
ARY Group Editor Tariq Mahmood Sham from Pakistan praised the work being done by the editors of Urdu newspapers in India for the protection and promotion of the language. “Despite being the official language, Urdu could not be implemented across Pakistan due to various factors,” he admitted.
He also apprehended that Pakistan would not be able to implement Urdu as the official language by March 23, 2012, as mandated earlier.
Siasat Editor Zahed Ali Khan demanded that the State Government amend the Official Languages Act for the effective implementation of Urdu as the second official language in the State. He also announced that the Siasat daily was planning to form a consortium of editors of all Urdu newspapers.
The members of the consortium would be provided with translated and ready to use news material to ensure that the high standards of Urdu media are maintained, he said. Further, all members of the consortium would be eligible for one lakh insurance each and the premium would be paid by Siasat daily.
–Agencies