Meet the children from Delhi who run India’s only newspaper published by street kids

New Delhi, the capital of India boasts of a vast slum population also regarded as one of the most neglected sections of the society.

The children however are the worst victims of the prevalent rampant ills, such as child-marriage, abuse and police brutality.

But despite these tough conditions and poverty, there are an ample number of children who want their life to be more than just this- they want it to have a purpose. They want the world to hear their voice.

And, in 2003 the NGO Chetna brought these children together and launched Balaknama (voice of children), a quarterly newspaper that talks about the issues faced by children who earn money begging, doing menial jobs and rag picking with 35 reporters in New Delhi in 2003.

Now, it has spread to seven cities, with almost 10,000 children working as journalists and writers for the publication. Tens of thousands make up the readership for Balaknama.

Eighteen-year-old Chandni is the editor of the newspaper and she holds editorial meetings twice every month. In total, there are 14 reporters, all of whom are either street children or have worked as child labourers in Delhi and neighbouring states. They track Delhi and neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Thanks to the NGO, Chandni was able to join a school and did not have to go back to her previous life of street-performing and rag-picking. Chetna's outreach program also gave her a stipend to and trained her in reporting.

"I am very proud of editing this paper because it's one of its kind in India. Children whose childhood have been robbed, have gone hungry, begged, been abused and forced to work, write about other children who are going through similar tribulations," Chadni adds.

Most of Balaknama's stories deal with the lives of street children - of employers mistreating their maids, police harrasing children at railway stations - interspersed with stories of hope.

Like 17-year-old Vikas Kumar put it- the idea is to get everyone to treat street kids as equal citizens and get their voice heard.

"If a Bollywood actor's dog gets hurt, it will be breaking news and will be covered by all newspapers and channels in India. But when a street kid dies on a railway platform or in an accident, no one seems to care,” he said to Al Jazeera.

Vikas ran away from his home at nine when he couldn’t take the wrath of his abusive parents any longer. For the next few years, he worked as a rag-picker at a train station and also fought drug addiction, coming out clean and ending up as a reporter for Balaknama.

Lucky for them, the circulation of the newspaper has gone up from 4,000 to 5,500 copies in the past one year. We hope that these kinds continue to make a difference and create awareness

The newspaper is financed and published by the NGO and has been priced at two rupees.



Image credit: Indiatimes