Regional media

Prakash Noolvi ,
Bureau Chief, TV9,
Kannada

Prakash Noolvi has been working for TV9, a Kannada regional news channel, for the last five years in Hubli as the Bureau Chief. He hails from a small village of Belavantha of Kalaghatagi taluk of Dharwad district in Karnataka. He started his career in a regional Kannada newspaper Sanjevaani. Later he joined the Indian Express Group as a reporter in Hubli. He was the first one to report irregularities in the state government’s Kooligaagi Kaalu Project (Labour For Food) and prostitution racket in Kalaghatagi taluk.

The coverage of Devadasi system in Bellary’s Kudli taluk won Prakash Noolvi, Bureau Chief of TV9, in Hubli, the prestigious Ramanath Goenka Excellence award. Kudli has been witnessing a culture of marrying daughters to the community God Hanumantha for a very long time. These young girls are of Valmiki caste who offer pooja to God Hanumantha. This mandatory tradition has led to prostitution as well. Once these young girls are married to God Hanumantha, they gradually end up becoming prostitutes in the community with no reason whatsoever. “The system was so intense that these teenaged girls had to sleep with customers everyday in front of their own family members. Adding more woes to their fate, the family members of such Devadasis were acting as pimps to negotiate prices for their daughters as prostitutes,” said Prakash. Whereas government records had given a clean chit to the district administration by making an official announcement that Devadasi system was completely eradicated from the state, even to this day prostitutions has been a tradition in the taluk in the name of God Hanumantha. The age old Devadasi system is still prevalent in the taluk, much to the agony of young women. The exclusive news coverage on Devadasi system by Prakash Noolvi of TV9 news channel shook the government so much that it had to send police to arrest all Devadasis.