This alleged suicide by a young, upright and hard-working journalist from Telangana is just an ugly manifestation of the overall distressing employment situation in the country that is leading to increasing suicidal tendencies among the youth, and even among the middle-aged.
The shocking news of the 36-year-old journalist working with a Telugu web channel in Warangal, G Yogi Reddy, first hanging his nine-year-old daughter Adya and then hanging himself in Warangal in Telangana, has sent shock waves across the media fraternity in the state. His relatives, and friends in personal and professional circles are finding it hard to believe that he could take such a drastic step owing to financial troubles. He leaves behind his wife.
[Also, by the same author: Union Budget: A tale of two states – Andhra Pradesh and Bihar – THE NEWS PORTER]
On Friday (August 9) evening, Yogi Reddy and his daughter Adya were found hanging in the one-room office where he used to work in Warangal, and the breaking news broke the hearts of many journalists in the Telugu speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and beyond.
The news of the suicide of a journalist, who thought it fit to take along his daughter on his final journey, came on a day when the newspapers carried news about a top industrial house in the country laying off 42,000 employees.
Many leading companies in India have carried out silent layoffs and have either shelved or drastically reduced new hiring, according to reports in the business media.
Many leading IT companies and ITES (Indian Information Technology Enabled Services) firms are also said to be laying off staff, and this is being seen because of two reasons: The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and greater efficiency machines and automation leading to a cut in staff requirements is one of the reasons being cited by labour experts, who also wonder whether the unemployment and/or underemployment prevalent across the country was an indicator of greater economic malice afflicting the country.
Job losses
Despite a buoyant and bouncy stock market, whose index is touted as an indicator of the economy’s health by the government and corporate sector, the employment scenario does pose questions on the actual state of the economy’s well-being. The job losses, it seems, are across sectors.
A Hyderabad labour expert lamented that youngsters and middle-aged professionals like Yogi Reddy “are having a tougher time today and the previous generation when job security, in general, was higher whether in private, semi-government or the government sector”.
“Today, even the government sector is outsourcing its work and reducing its workforce,” he cited as the reasons for the pressure on the employment front, which, sadly, is manifesting in a direction that no one wants.
[Also, by the same author: The day after: Karnataka govt on the back foot over jobs for locals – THE NEWS PORTER]
The case of the Warangal-based journalist is heart-rending because his family – wife and sister – and media colleagues had a tough time organising his funeral as the owner of the rented accommodation refused to allow the body to be brought home. Later, the bodies of the father and the daughter were taken to their native village – Yogi Reddy does not have any property in the village too – where the cremation took place.
Extreme step
A financial crisis is said to be the reason that forced Yogi Reddy to take the extreme step.
Police have registered a case, and an investigation is being carried out.
His professional colleagues remember Yogi Reddy as a thorough professional who breathed and ate journalism and believed in questioning those in authority and he always backed the downtrodden as his bounden duty. A brutally honest professional, he is said to have been struggling with the pressures of meeting his living expenses.
Main image on top by Goran Horvat from Pixabay has been used for illustrative purposes only
Comments 0