Short term Media Grants: What Happened to the Refugees and Migrants in the Covid Year of 2020 

MAHANIRBAN CALCUTTA RESEARCH GROUP (Calcutta Research Group) is offering short term media grants to reporters, journalists, and media practitioners for investigative studies on the following topics: (a) Frontline Covid warriors like lower level health workers at block and Gram Panchayat or local municipality level, ASHA workers, and nurses and doctors; (b) Initiatives of solidarity with migrant workers undertaken by various civil society organisations, local clubs, municipal councillors, small groups of people, private or government employees, political workers, and humanitarian activists – their linkages and histories; (c) Dynamics of bustee (slum) level protection; (d) Situation of returnee migrants, their reception in villages and towns, fear of the migrant workers as carriers of the virus, migrant workers’ prospect of work on return, their return to old jobs, responsibility of the state governments and local bodies, etc.; perceptions of the media about returnee migrants; returnee migrant as an election issue; (e) The role of the social media in the migrant crisis during the lock down; (f) The “data crisis” around the migrant workers during the lockdown and the pandemic; (g) Court judgments and other legal aspects such as the efficacy of the Inter State Migrant Workmen Act of 1979; and (h) The rehabilitation of the Rohingya refugees of Cox’s Bazar in the Bhasan Island in Bay of Bengal and the roles of the State and the international humanitarian agencies.

Additionally, the year 2021 being the 50th year of the Bangladesh refugee crisis, proposals will be welcome on the situation of refugees in India in 1971 around issues of life in camps, diseases, violence, politics, and the return of refugees.

Each grant will carry a total amount of Rs. 40,000/- (Rupees Forty thousand only) including any research expenses. Five selected candidates will be given grants. The selected candidates will be paid on submission of their reports/articles/media analyses. Candidates are expected to have experience in reporting, writing, or editing for print and/or digital media. Reports in the form of photo-essays (original photographs) will be particularly welcome. Candidates with relevant experience and demonstrable interest in covering migrant-related stories will be preferred. The investigative or analytic pieces will be of around 4000-5000 words. The grant period will be for three months. Selected candidates will have to submit their reports/writings to the Calcutta Research Group by 31 August 2021, which will have the right to publish these reports. Selected candidates will be also encouraged to publish short reports or analysis pieces on the basis of their work in any reputable journal, magazine, newspaper, or web-portal. Detailed application, a statement of purpose of 500-750 words explaining the selected theme or story for investigation along with one previously published investigative or analysis piece may be sent by email by 10 April 2021 to forcedmigrationdesk@mcrg.ac.in and subhashree@mcrg.ac.in . Applicants should send their resume, cover letter, statement of purpose, and example of work in one file (PDF). The text of the sample piece along with the link has to be attached with the application. Selected grant recipients will present their work in a media workshop to be held in December 2021. Applicants are requested to consult the Calcutta Research Group website www.mcrg.ac.in for information on the institution. For information on the previous media fellowship programme (2020) they may also consult -
http://www.mcrg.ac.in/IWM_Migration/Report_Media_Workshop_Planning_Meeting_IWM.pdf . Any relevant enquiry will be welcome.