The so-called part-time journalists – the most vital grass-root level link of every newspaper in the entire chain of news collection process has ironically remained the most neglected class to date. The saddest chapter of the newspaper industry consists of the fact that there are thousands of part-time journalists all over the country whose wages remain wholly unregulated and their bargaining strength remains a big zero and non-existent. And to cap the chaos the changing dynamics of the newspaper industry in the 21st century has changed the role of a part-time journalist completely and has made his job “more challenging, more demanding and more crucial” for no extra gain – he continues to exist professionally and socially in the later 20th century conditions. With the fast changing scenario in the newspaper industry “while the regional newspapers are pushing into the national big league, the national newspapers are coming down into local markets. Small and medium towns and cities are emerging as new growth areas for manufacturing and services sector industries; so is the case with the newspaper industries also. Prashan Pandey, CEO of ENIL, says: “In absolute terms, you cannot beat the metros. In growth terms, quite obviously the larger growth is coming form the smaller towns.” With the advent of electronic media the part- time correspondents have to very often compete with TV channels getting instructions from their offices to follow leads from a Breaking News of a TV Channel. His dispatches are used not only in local editions but also in all others including the Web-newspaper thus putting the contribution of a muffasil correspondent within international reach. He is no more an insignificant part-time journalist of yore but a full time 24x7 journalist of today. In fact there is no such thing as part-time journalist today. With the spread and opening of local offices of multi-edition newspapers the so-called part-time journalists also like the regular staff journalists are required to come to local offices for filing news stories everyday. Otherwise they use their personal infrastructure like house, telephone, computer and internet and electricity besides entertaining the visitors to file news. They do not get any payment for that. And to add to their misery the newspaper organizations demand that they arrange commercial advertisements for the newspaper – it is the latent part of their duty. One may not believe but the fact is that in most parts of U.P., Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, part-time correspondents do not get remuneration even of an unskilled worker fixed by the government. The previous two wage boards headed by Justice Bachawat and Justice Manisana had recommended that part-time journalists would get 50 per cent remuneration of a regular journalist of a news organization with a proviso that he is working for only one news organization. And if a part-timer is associated with more than one newspaper, his remuneration of 50 per cent would be borne by the different newspapers proportionately. But even this unsatisfactory recommendation is ignored by almost entire newspaper industry. The National Union of Journalists (India)’s submission has been that there is no journalist who can be called a part-time journalist. His duties are not confined to any particular part of the day. Rather a muffasil journalist has to be vigilant all the time and is supposed to run for news-gathering even during odd hours sans any extra support or payment. A part-time journalist, like a full- timer, is fully responsible to collect, write and send important news and the write-ups to the head office before the deadline everyday. He is not supposed to and cannot afford to miss any news in the today’s competitive environment. A rail accident or a naxalite attack in any remote and inaccessible area, the local part-time journalist being nearest to the spot of happening is supposed to and is also told to rush to the site and file the first report. A part-time journalist is a bona fide representative of the news organisation, he serves, in his area. Local officials, political party leaders and elected representatives all recognize him and deal with him only for coverage. The NUJ(I) has come to know that after the previous wage boards’ recommendations the newspaper organizations have started new tactics to deny to part-time journalists their dues as per these recommendations. They have started forcing part-time journalists to sign on letters dictated by them saying that they are working as citizen journalists and that there was no employer-employee relationship between the journalist and the organisation. Our association has been demanding that the muffasil (part-time) journalist should be called Field Journalist and be considered as regular staff journalist and should be made eligible for a salary and other benefits given to the later. As such he should be issued appointment letter in which the factual position of the “principal avocation” should be stated. (It should be note that no appointment letters are given to part-time correspondents by any organisation describing their work under different labels at present.) That in terms of the Supreme Court Judgment in the Management of Express Newspapers Ltd. V/s. B. Somayjulu 1964(3) SCR 100 the term “principal avocation” under section 2(f), which qualifies a journalist to be a working journalist has been spelt out as “the gains made by him by pursuing the career of a journalist as compared with the gains made by him in the pursuit of other callings or professions”. That given the bargaining position vis-à-vis the employer especially in the districts, the part-time working journalist can have little or no material to show that journalism is his principal avocation. In any event to claim his just dues under the Act he must litigate and with the burden of proof on him he must necessarily lose in the absence of material. That in terms of the Supreme Court’s judgment in 1964(3) SCR 100 the part time journalist must be in “exclusive employment because a working journalist cannot serve two employers”. However, this is wholly contrary to the ground reality since a working journalist may be required to work part time for several newspaper establishments simply because no full time employment is available. That similarly there are several freelance journalists who work regularly for a newspaper establishment but due to the market forces of employment are denied their just wages or payments. Such journalists, some of them even accreditated as freelance with state accreditation agencies, are paid u/s. 8 of the Act on a “piece rate” basis. Our association has also been demanding that the Working Journalist Act, in particular its section 2(f), should be suitably amended to redefine so that field journalists are not denied their dues. The present definition insists that the working journalist should have journalism as his principal avocation). The Management by denying field journalist their full dues, forces them to seek other avenues of income and then reverse the argument that they can’t demand their legal dues as working journalist as their principal avocation is not journalism. This chicken and egg situation needs to be broken herewith by recommending living wage to muffasil journalists and making changes in the definition of the working journalist to enforce the proper wages. The proper wages is the pre-requisite for the nourishment of this crucial link. Only a proper wage structure for part-time journalist would attract proper kind of talent in this profession. The time has come when not only National and State capital levels journalism requires well trained human resources but muffasil correspondents also needed to be brilliant ones. (The writer is former president of Delhi Journalists Association and is Treasurer of National Union of Journalists. He has around 25 years of experience in the field of journalism and is presently working with PTI-Bhasa)