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About Khabar Lahariya |
Written in the local language, Bundeli, Khabar Lahariya provides a mix of news, information and entertainment specifically for its Bundelkhandi audience - rural and with mostly low levels of literacy. The eight-page newspaper covers current political news, stories on the functioning of panchayats, the bureaucracy, schools and hospitals in the region. Its distinctive reportage of atrocities on women and marginalised sections of society critiques the tendency of contemporary media to sensationalise such incidents. Also distinctive is Khabar Lahariya’s collective process of production, which takes place over a three-day writing, editing and illustrating workshop.
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Khabar Lahariya’s objective of reaching out to villages in which other forms of information and entertainment were limited has been enthusiastically worked at, and now the paper is something of a name in the area. Khabar Lahariya is sold by the reporters and by other agents of the newspaper; copies are also available at small shops and tea stalls in the block headquarters and in remote villages and hamlets. |
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Photo: Ami Vitale |
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Khabar Lahariya is a unique example of transformative education. It has enabled rural, Dalit, newly-literate women to enter and transform the public arena of media and information creation, a space traditionally dominated by 'upper-caste' men. In a crucial, innovative way, it strengthens grassroots democracy and challenges gender and caste relations. Its investigative style of reportage not only makes it popular with its readers but is also important in putting in place a culture of accountability and transparency. Several reports published in Khabar Lahariya have enabled people to act and demand redress. The Khabar Lahariya team includes women from marginalised communities, with differing levels of literacy and information. Considerable effort is made, therefore, to develop their literacy skills as well as build other capacities: for instance, their abilities to move around and interact with various people in the public sphere, their levels of information and understanding on politics; inputs on writing and editing and so on. Another considerable challenge has been the lack of established systems of distribution even for mainstream newspapers beyond the towns. Efforts to try and set up distribution mechanisms have had limited and sporadic success, though now a more streamlined plan for marketing has been put into place. Other plans for the near future, on which the group has already begun to work, include the need to increase the periodicity of Khabar Lahariya by making it a weekly publication; and register the paper as an independent legal entity (under the Societies Registration Act) to enable the group to function as an independent production unit.
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In March 2004 Khabar Lahariya received the prestigious Chameli Devi Jain Award – an annual award for outstanding women journalists from Media Foundation, New Delhi. For a rural women’s media collective to get an award of this nature constitutes an important breakthrough in the male-dominated world of rural journalism. Three members of the group have also received fellowships from the Dalit Foundation in 2004, for reporting on issues related to rights of the Dalit community. |
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