Reporter’s Diary

By Athira Elssa Johnson -



  • Athira Elssa Johnson

Listening to narrations of my counterparts on covering deprivation I know for a fact that Journalism still hangs on to atrocity-poverty porn and gets away with it. In a space like that it is difficult to write a diary or a project experience that was normal to me, that is about people I see, and talk to, live with since the day I can remember.  But all I can think from the experience is to wish that once in a while these elite journalists from elite colleges whose flowery language and motivational stories they think will save the world meet someone like Radamani of Arippa Samarabhoomi( Arippa Protest site).  She was sure as to why it was not worth it to trust anyone who is outside of the protest site.

 After shooing me away she asked me if I have any clue where I am standing, she scanned me for the next few hours, asked everything about me, and said, “You might understand the health scenario here. You will understand how my daughter is surviving blood cancer, I can talk about her to you. Everyone knows what happened to my second daughter, it was all over the media-- will I be cursed for not talking much about her? -- my husband fell ill that day when she was killed in domestic violence. Dowry, assets, mental ,physical health—all gone”.

At Arippa protest site, Radamani is one of the 550 people. She borrowed some money and did cement flooring in her tarpaulin makeshift hut so that if at all her elder daughter who is surviving cancer can come to stay with her for a day. Her husband who is mentally unwell wants to stay with Radamani but she fears his condition will disturb the other residents. What charity does to Radamni is another cruel story—charity institutions came to take pictures with her, ensuring to sponsor her daughter’s treatment, and simply vanished after that.

“ What you should do is, call this out if you planning to write about this, tell them we won’t let you in, If you do not know about us already, she said -spitting tobacco that she chews regularly like other residents at Arippa.




" I believe in the power of lived experiences and documenting stories . I try to survive amidst the stigma, hate and act against any means / system of oppression. Considers intersectionality as to be the most important in politics and elsewhere. Trying to learn, relearn and unlearn as a journalist. My beat is health and I pursue it with understanding of communities "

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