Making news,making a difference

Rural newspapers are creating a silent revolution in Uttar Pradesh. Recently,Khabar Lehariya,brought out by the low-caste rural women of Bundelkhand...

Rural newspapers are creating a silent revolution in Uttar Pradesh. Recently,Khabar Lehariya,brought out by the low-caste rural women of Bundelkhand,was selected for the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize for the year 2009. With this,over a dozen newsletters across UP have also come into focus.

The papers carry reports on local civic problems and bring social issues to the fore. The December 2008 issue of Mitra,a rural newsletter from Oraiyya district in Bundelkhand,focused on the problem of caste bias in the village primary school. The people who brought out the issue showed it to block development officials,who recorded it as an official complaint and took action against the school teachers.

Womens newsletterssuch as Purvai of Varanasi,Bhinsaar of Pratapgarh,Dehriya of Sitapur,Bhaiyli of Mathura,and Mahila Dakiya of Chitrakootand those focusing on issues concerning children,such as Bal Pehrua of Varanasi,are also making their mark.

These publications are supported by NGOssuch as Mahila Samakhya,which works in womens education and empowerment in Uttar Pradesh; Nirantar,a support group from New Delhi; Asha Parivar; and the Shambhu Nath Singh Research Foundation in Varanasibut brought out entirely by the rural populace. While some of them are quarterly and bi-annual journals,others are monthlies and fortnightlies.

Its the rural women who collect,compile and type up the news that goes into these journals. While some newsletters have a circulation of 700-800 copies,others sell as many as 20,000 copies. Most of them cost between Re 1 and Rs 3.

The women say villagers have now started coming to them with their problems for publication in the papers. When her parents barred her from going to school,a girl in Chitrakoot approached the local news team and they wrote an appeal to her parents. We published it in the newsletter and sent a copy of it to her parents. The girls parents were convinced about the significance of education and allowed her to continue going to school, says Varsha of Mahila Dakiya.

Director of Mahila Samakhya,Rashmi Sinha,says these newsletters are trying to close the communication gap in rural areas. For us,this is the most effective medium for making our problems known, say Kiran and Sushma,rural reporters in Jaunpur.