Narayan Barhath is a veteran Indian journalist, political analyst and the former

State Information Commissioner State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

. As a journalist, he has been associated with various news groups including

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

The Asian Age ''The Asian Age'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper with editions published in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. It also prints an "international edition" in London. It was launched in February 1994. The same publishing company also pro ...

, and The Pioneer. He has served as Professor of Journalism at both the

University of Rajasthan The University of Rajasthan, informally known as Rajasthan University (RU, ISO: Rājasthān Viśvavidyālaya), is a public state university located in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. It was founded in 1947 by an Act of the State Legislative Assembl ...

's Centre for Mass Communication and Haridev Joshi University of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Career

Journalism

Bareth has been working in the field of journalism for around three decades. He began his career at

Navbharat Times ''Navbharat Times'' (NBT; ) is a Hindi newspaper distributed in Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow and Kanpur. It is from the stable of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL), which also publishes other dailies including ''The Times of India'', ''The Economic ...

in Kota in 1986 and went on to work with various news groups, including

Dainik Bhaskar ''Dainik Bhaskar '' () is a Hindi-language daily newspaper in India which is owned by the Dainik Bhaskar Group. According to the World Association of Newspapers, it ranked fourth in the world by circulation in 2016 and per the Indian Audit ...

Deccan Chronicle ''Deccan Chronicle'' is an English-language daily newspaper based in Hyderabad, India. Founded in 1938, it was initially launched as a Weekly newspaper, weekly and later converted into a daily. The newspaper's name reflects its origins in the ...

, and The Pioneer. He is credited for laying the foundations for BBC in Rajasthan, working as BBC Rajasthan correspondent for over a decade. As an esteemed journalist in Rajasthan, he has extensively covered the desert region's droughts and reported on issues such as the Indo-Pak border, migration, and the influx of refugees from

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. He has also written numerous articles on social discrimination,

women's empowerment Women's empowerment (or female empowerment) may be defined in several method, including accepting women's viewpoints, making an effort to seek them and raising the status of women through education, awareness, literacy, equal status in society, ...

, and development stories from marginalized communities such as

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

and

Dalit Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold var ...

s in the state. He was associated with the campaign for the establishment of the RTI Act. In 2005, Prof Bareth retraced Gandhi's famous

Dandi March The Salt march, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March, and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of non violent civil disobedience in colonial India, led by Mahatma Gandhi. The 24-day march lasted from 12 March 1930 to 6 April 1930 as a di ...

from Sabarmati to Dandi and documented his journey. Along with attending several orientation programs, he has delivered speeches on media and journalism and participated in workshops in various locations. His research interests include

radio journalism Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connected to ...

. According to Bareth, caste-issues play minimal role in state elections in

which alternates between

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

and

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Since 2014, ...

every five years. However, it is still an issue today where having a name associated with lower castes sets them apart. He highlighted the name change notices in newspapers, revealing the widespread impact on countless names, not just in Rajasthan. Speaking on recent trends, Bareth stated that India has much to preserve in every field, but the

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

is now dominating everything. According to him, India's culture,

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

, clothing, food are its soft power, but the country is losing sight of its identity. He expressed concern about the media's growing focus on advertising over the

public interest In social science and economics, public interest is "the welfare or well-being of the general public" and society. While it has earlier philosophical roots and is considered to be at the core of democratic theories of government, often paired ...

, and believes that questioning is crucial to the understanding of society, which should not be suppressed.

State Information Commissioner

Narayan Bareth was appointed

in December 2020. During his 21-month tenure, Bareth resolved more than 7,000 cases, including 389 complaints. In some cases, officers were also directed to update their service records. During his tenure, Bareth fined over 200

rural development Rural development is the process of improving the quality of life, quality of life and economic well-being of people living in rural areas, often relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas. Often, rural regions have experienced rural povert ...

and Panchayati Raj officials, plus 35 urban development and local body officials who had failed to provide required information with regards to RTIs filed. Bareth stated that he had only 17 months of actual work due to Covid lockdown, and treated all work with priority, including low-influence applications like pension cases and document requests. Narayan Bareth acknowledged the importance of using the Right to Information (RTI) Act for good governance. According to him, only 3.5% of the population in Rajasthan is currently using the RTI. Bareth cited Sweden as an example of a country where the RTI has been implemented for nearly 250 years, resulting in faster work pace and almost non-existent corruption. He also stated that the Information Commission is working on increasing awareness about the RTI and that the biggest challenge for the Commission is the backlog of nearly 18,000 pending cases in Rajasthan, with only 5,000 cases resolved so far. Despite the lack of resources, efforts were being made to work on people's appeals. As the Information Commissioner, Bareth's last working day saw the resolution of 10 cases. In 21 months, he took no leave and resolved an average of 396 cases per month, which was a record. Bareth instructed Panchayati Raj and local bodies not only to provide information to applicants but also to

disseminate To disseminate (from lat. ''disseminare'' "scattering seeds"), in the field of communication, is to broadcast a message to the public without direct feedback from the audience. Meaning Dissemination takes on the theory of the traditional view ...

and publish that information on their websites.

Positions held

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bareth, Narayan Living people 20th-century Indian journalists 21st-century Indian journalists Indian newspaper editors People from Rajasthan Rajasthani people Journalists from Rajasthan Indian columnists Indian newspaper journalists Indian political journalists Academic staff of the University of Rajasthan Year of birth missing (living people)