More than 170 women journalists from across India attended the Network of Women in Media, India’s (NWMI) 18th National Meeting in Mumbai between February 2 and 4, 2024, making it one of the largest in-person gatherings of the Network.

This year’s three-day NWMI meeting was held at a time when several crises, including financial, ethical and technological, face Indian journalism. At the same time, media workers confront precarious employment conditions and many real threats to freedom of expression. As the country prepared to go into one of its most polarised national elections, it was a time to share, reflect and learn as well as to build solidarity and renew our sisterhood.

Set in the heart of India’s commercial capital city of Mumbai, the meeting brought together an eclectic mix of grassroots reporters and journalists, columnists, artists and filmmakers, and policy wonks and AI experts. Conversations ranged from the serious and intense to the light-hearted and provocative. The many onslaughts on freedom of speech, that increasingly rare commodity in today’s political context, were under the conference microscope in myriad ways: from misinformation on social media to the need for enough data to write powerful stories on the crisis of rural agriculture; from representing women in media and cinema realistically to ensuring the stories we report of our cities and its poor are based on reliable facts and data.

Resources and funding are the other big crunches facing the world of journalism, as the public meeting’s discussion on independent media highlighted. While mainstream media is busy kowtowing to corporate and political power, it is independent media platforms, with shoestring budgets, that are stepping up to be the truth tellers, fearlessly attempting to hold accountable the corporate-government nexus that operates with impunity.

The first two sessions on February 2 in the morning served as an introduction to the Network and its varied members. As one by one, women journalists got up to introduce themselves and their work, one realised that NWMI has members who cover every medium – from print, television and radio to multiple forms of digital storytelling, podcasting, documentary, YouTubing, and more – and are based in many major cities as well as remote rural and marginal locations in 21 Indian states.

Members spoke, wrote and even illustrated of what the network and the meet meant to them.

The three-day meeting was not “all work and no play”. While the arrangements were simple, Mumbai speciality snacks like pav bhaji and missal were much appreciated.

Participants also got to enjoy the seaside venue and join the crowds outside the homes of Bollywood biggies.

Surrounded by the Arabian Sea on one side and river Mithi on the other, Bandra offers a scenic window to good old Bombay — from its old fashioned and pleasant East Indian villages to the many bakeries and traditional eating haunts to the picturesque slopes and lanes leading to historic churches, mosques, and (sometimes) to the doors of India’s biggest movie stars.
To ensure everyone got a taste of this eclectic, salty landmark, five walking routes with a rich cultural and social history were picked. This curated activity spread across three days also ensured that members got a fresh start as they kept pace with the morning joggers across the city’s stunning promenades, Carter Road and Bandstand, depending on the walk they chose.
Four of the walking trails started at the foothill of the iconic Mount Mary Church and one from St Andrew’s Church.

Walking trails and their guides:

The Game of the Name – Stories that name tell. A short history of Bandra through public fonts spread across different landmarks by independent writer Dilip D’Souza

Point. Don’t Shoot – Discover through Observations
A photography tutorial walk on observing and capturing a city through its morning light By Mumbai blogger Gopal MS aka Slogan Murugan/ Mumbai Paused

Bandra – Then, Now and Hereafter
A delve into the transformation from a group of hamlets to its present urban form
By architect and urban researcher Minaz Ansari

Fully Booked. Where do Bandra’s books go? And where do they come from…of libraries and “librairies”
By French teacher Vibha Kamat

Outsiders, Go Home
An intimate walk through Bandra’s village lanes (and waving at Salman Khan’s empty balcony)
By journalist and neighbourhood gossip Naresh Fernandes

All walks started at seven in the morning. Each guide took two rounds on consecutive days, ensuring a full morning roster with multiple options to choose all three days. Each walk took an hour and half and everyone reached in time for the morning sessions. Members Sonal Kellog and Parul Sharma took alarm call requests and ensured that members woke up at dawn and were ready for their respective walks.

Dilip D’Souza also took some members to Hanging Gardens in south Bombay where the women got an opportunity to sing and dance to music played by a senior citizen run mini-orchestra.

 

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The first day of the conference ended with an electrifying performance by the famous `lok shahir‘ or folk balladeer Sambhaji Bhagat, Maharashtra’s leading folk singer. The 65-year-old, who has been performing since the 1980s, considers the revolutionary Telugu folk singer Gaddar to be his mentor and has even been jailed along with him. A follower of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Sambhaji has been part of Dalit movements including the historic movement in the 1980s to rename the Marathwada University after Dr Ambedkar.

Sambhaji makes full use of traditional folk forms but gives them a revolutionary twist. His was a familiar face when street plays were the norm in 1980s Mumbai, when student protests were at their peak. His politics have often made him and his troupe a target, but he has never run away from those attacks; nor has he compromised on his ideology.

 

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During the Covid pandemic and for some time after that, Sambhaji ran ‘Manushki chi Paatshala‘, an online weekly program for school children, in which he and other artists explained the Constitution through song, storytelling and theatre. School children across the state tuned in.

The multiple award winning artist, who is also featured in Bengaluru’s new music museum, and is recognised as a rockstar in Maharashtra, performed free of charge with his troupe, the Vidrohi Ambedkari Jalsa; he considered it to be part of the cause he believes in to reach out to an audience of women journalists from across the country. His performance had the audience riveted. Although it began late at night, our members stayed up till midnight asking for more.

The highlight of Sambhaji’s performance was his signature song: `Inki surat ko pechano re bhai‘, which he started singing during the dark days of the Ayodhya movement. Its expose of the fanatic Hindutvawadis makes it even more relevant today. In his unique style, Sambhaji interspersed his songs with snatches of dialogue, explaining, provoking and inviting audience responses – which he got in full measure. Some were moved to tears by his rendition of the famous ‘Gao chodab nahin’, known as the song of Adivasi resistance.

Sambhaji’s troupe included Babasaheb Aatkhile, Vishal Pardhe, Priya Dunighav, and Vaibhav Pandav. Priya’s rendition of ‘Hum Dekhenge’ had the audience singing along with her.

NWMI member  Sonal Kellogg independently interviewed Sambhaji for her YouTube channel:

The organising committee of the NWMI National Meeting in Mumbai:

Anjali Mathur, Carol Andrade, Freny Maneksha, Geeta Seshu, Haima Deshpande, Hepzi Anthony, Jyoti Punwani, Kalpana Sharma, Mexi Xavier, Mahithi Pillay, Pooja Bhulla, Sandhya Srinivasan, Sameera Khan, Shailaja Tiwale, Sharmila Joshi and Smita Nair.

Report and Visuals:

Anjali Mathur, Annie Philip, Anupama Venkiteswaran, Anuradha Sharma, Ayswarya Murthy, Jyoti Punwani, Kalpana Sharma, Mahithi Pillay, Meena Kotwal, Namita Bhandare, Nithya Pandian, Preeti Shekhar, Priyamvada Mangal,  Priyanka Borpujari, Priyanka Jha, Rohini Mohan, Sameera Khan, Sandhya Srinivasan, Sehar Qazi, Srishti Jaswal, Shahin Mokashi, Supriya Unni Nair, Tasneem Kutubuddin, and Yamini Nair.