On 12/12/07, shiv sastry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Todays Hindu says in a headline (which I was unable to find online this > morning) > > "How IT has changed the city's crime scenario: > The economic divide created by the IT boom has forced many youth from poor > families to take to crime" > > How cosy and comfortable. The problem is described and the answer revealed > right at the top of the page before the text of the article.
Shiv-- I couldn't agree with you more. I have just written a response to those silly pieces in The Hindu with my colleague AR Vasavi, which I paste below, in case they don't publish it! Certainly the impact of IT and rapid growth on the city is an important issue, but the media seem to excell at framing the questions in the most simplistic way. Want to respond to some of your other points, but at a later time. Here is our take on this: Response to Public Eye, 13 December 2007 >From Iconisisation to Vilification The essays on IT and the city (The Hindu, Dec 12th 2007) portray IT professionals and their lifestyles as responsible for the recent spate of crime, increasing cost of living, rising consumerism, etc, in Bangalore. Over the past few years, the popular media have mostly celebrated and promoted the IT industry, its leaders, its triumphant global march and its growing economic prominence. But suddenly, IT workers/professionals are being blamed for the array of woes facing the city. Just as the celebration and the iconisisation of IT distorted and misrepresented the reality, so also is the new vilification of IT professionals a distortion. For one, the IT industry may have been a prime driver behind Bangalore's boom, but its multiplier effects are much wider. People with high disposable incomes are not all from IT. Many cities in India, including second and third tier towns, now have enclaves of the 'booming economy' and its attendant consumer culture, including upscale malls, pubs, posh eateries, beauty parlours, theatres, discos etc. Those who patronise these new sites of entertainment, leisure and consumption are not only, or even primarily, from the IT /ITES sector, but include the new and the old business classes, people from the growing retail and financial sectors, real estate development and other service industries, and many others who have prospered from the growth in the private sector as well as the rural landed elite. Second, it is common for media reports to conflate IT (or software) professionals with ITES or BPO workers. This is highly problematic, for it is the younger BPO employees rather than software engineers who are more likely to be participants in, and consumers of, this global culture. Far from being voracious and fashion-oriented consumers, most IT personnel are cautious spenders and savers and espouse fairly conservative middle class social values. It should also be noted that the IT professionals are themselves workers, who in their own industry are overworked and exploited. Blaming the IT industry, IT professionals or even BPO employees for Bangalore's conspicuous urban problems – the rising real estate prices, chaotic traffic, the increasing social divide, and allegedly high crime rate – misses their real causes. If economic liberalisation spawned the IT industry, it has also led to a decline in the state's role in promoting equitable economic development and in the regular provision of key services. If housing and infrastructure woes beset the average middle class person, what then is the predicament of the working poor? Our urban woes cannot be attributed to specific individuals or groups, but must be traced to larger systemic political and economic changes and the inevitable distortions that are caused by an enclave high-growth economy such as Bangalore's. In all this, the media needs to play a key role in documenting the fast-changing urban scenario and in stimulating constructive public debate. Blaming 'the poor' for crime, based on little evidence, rather than seeing them as the primary victims of Bangalore's uneven development pattern, is an example of irresponsible reporting. Similarly, simplistic representations that vilify IT people and make them scapegoats for much larger social and economic problems are dangerous and unwarranted. A.R. Vasavi Carol Upadhya National Institute of Advanced Studies IISc Campus Bangalore-560012
