TANVI BAMBOLKAR

Some of the major reasons for girls dropping out of the school are less amount of dowry to be paid if the girl is married young and secondly once the puberty hits them the school infrastructure is unable to meet the demands of hygiene.

She was one of the Gomant Bal Bhushan Awardees in her school days in creative performance. She was passionate about theatre as well as journalism. Her love for journalism took her beyond the boundaries of Goa to explore the possibilities in bigger cities. Deepali Desai, a strong willed girl from Goa, after exploring the metros got a chance to explore the rural India once she joined the NGO ‘Going To School’ after seven years of experience in the electronic media.
Currently, she goes in villages, talks to people and produces radio shows which create awareness regarding the education in rural India. While speaking about a latest show that she produced for All India Radio, Bihar, called ‘Chapati Challenge’ she told how she brought various kinds of people to discuss about the school dropouts. Parents of dropouts had one view while teachers would express how they can help in curbing the number of school dropouts in rural India.
Hailing from the tiny town of Ribandar, Deepali Desai dreamt big as she took admission in Bangalore’s Garden City College after her HSSC. After completing her graduation in Journalism, English and Psychology she opted to do PGDM in Broadcast Journalism in the Indian Institute of Journalism in New Media in Banglore.
Recession had hit up India in 2010 when Deepali completed her post-graduation, waiting to join the industry she wanted to join since a long time. She started off her career with TV9 Banglore and worked there for nearly two years. Her good work further gave her the opportunities to work for reputed channels like Times Now. She worked for Times Now in Mumbai for around one and half year. From a state based TV channel to one of the biggest national channels was a big jump for Deepali. It was also a learning experience for her as she tells. “Living alone in Mumbai wasn’t easy, but it taught me to live by myself,” she often says.
“I am glad that girls from Goa today are taking up fields which demand going out of the state. When I took up this profession I had nobody to call and ask for advice. But I am happy today as I can advise the young girls who are getting into this profession,” she says.
After having lived in Mumbai, Deepali decided to move to Delhi in order to explore the profession further. Her short stint with NDTV taught her once again a lot about the media field. She then decided to join NewsX where she held significant positions for nearly two and half years. “I was the shift head for the morning band,” Deepali recalls.
She saw it all, the good and ugly face of the media. She wanted a change and some fresh air, thus she again took a call and joined NGO named ‘Going To School’ which works towards sensitising people in rural India about the importance of education. She started working for them as radio producer. “I love my job. It lets me travel to places which are away from the metropolitan India.” Deepali tells.
“Some of the major reasons for girls dropping out of the school are less amount of dowry to be paid if the girl is married young and secondly once the puberty hits them the school infrastructure is unable to meet the demands of hygiene,” Deepali noted.
Deepali feels that journalism today has become politics centric and is hardly concentrating on social issues. “Mumbai floods are covered on a large basis on national media, but nobody is talking about Bihar’s plight,” she says with the pain.
Deepali has travelled a lot and has seen a lot of things around India. But her heart comes back to Goa. She says, “this is where I find my peace.” Thus, right now Deepali is on a sabbatical down in Goa. She says now she wants to explore and work for Goa. At the end, we wrapped our chat with her saying, “I hope Goa doesn’t disappoint me.”