PRIYA THUVASSERY

The Khabar Lahariya Story
As Khabar Lahariya completes 20 years, we’d like to take you on a journey of how it all began.
The Beginning
- In 1993, the government of India launched a women’s literacy programme called Mahila Samakhya, to educate women in rural areas.
- Many women enrolled for the adult education courses and literacy camps as part of the government’s innovative Mahila Samakhya programme.
- But once the courses ended, given the scarcity of material in their local languages, how would they continue reading and writing by themselves?
Mahila Dakiya - the precursor to Khabar Lahariya
- In Banda, a district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, some social entrepreneurs came up with a solution: Mahila Dakiya, a four-page broadsheet newspaper.
- Mahila Dakiya was unique because it trained newly-literate women to write for themselves and for their peers, entering a world of print publication that had been dominated by men.
- Not only did the publication break caste and gender barriers, it also enabled the sustained production of reading material in local languages and promoted an overall environment of learning.
- In 1995, Mahila Dakiya folded, leaving behind a legacy of literacy, hunger for information and a model of women’s empowerment.
Khabar Lahariya - India’s first all-women newspaper
- Local stories didn’t go beyond udghatan (inauguration), durghatna (accident) and hatya (murder), and then in 2002, Khabar Lahariya was launched with a focus on hyperlocal content.
- Khabar Lahariya stepped into the shoes of its precursor, Mahila Dakiya, starting with a group of 7 women who wrote and produced a fortnightly newspaper in Bundeli and Hindi.
- It covered stories on corrupt officials and murders by ‘dabangs’ and all hell broke loose!
- The publication received letters from the dabangs, threatening to file defamation cases against us and our reporters were told to not act ‘too smart’ for their caste.
- Khabar Lahariya had arrived as a local, independent newspaper- beyond the influence of the administration and the local power holders.
- Over a decade, KL expanded the model of autonomous local language editions that recruited, trained and employed women as full-time reporters and editors, who would also distribute a small print run of a local language newspaper, across eastern and central Uttar Pradesh.
Bringing a Feminist Voice into Local Media
- In the early days, a heated debate took place in an editorial meeting, and questions were raised: “Will we write about women pradhaans that are corrupt?” “Aren’t we a feminist news agency?”
- This sparked a discussion on what does it mean to be feminist?
- It had to be deeper than just portraying women in a positive light in a context where they were only ‘bechari’ (helpless) or ‘besharam’ (shameless).
- It had to be about looking at the use and abuse of power by people, institutions and systems.
- It had to be about not stereotyping gender in the way that other media did by their headlines that screamed- do bacchon ki ma premi ke saath faraar (mother of two on the run with her lover)!
Establishing women as journalists in small towns and villages
- Many people were sceptical about the publication. In the initial years, KL was told by the District Magistrate (DM) of Banda that it was the ideal collective for his programme that trained women to make achaar (pickle) and papad. We would definitely be eligible for his fund since our collective had women who were Dalit, tribal and Muslim!
- The DM couldn’t imagine that the collective was started precisely to challenge this social stereotype that restricted women’s access to opportunities. It was launched to make a dent in the male bastion in the strongest possible manner.
- It was a collective that was committed to skilling and establishing women as reporters, editors, designers, photographers.
- For recruitment, publicising is done through word of mouth, in newspapers, on Facebook, via WhatsApp, and through NGO networks in the districts Khabar Lahariya is looking to hire.
- Applications are invited, and applicants are shortlisted on the basis of their basic qualifications, usually secondary or 10th standard school examination certificate. They need to be women, from rural locations, and preferably from marginalised backgrounds. Then, senior KL members travel to the districts to interview shortlisted candidates. Struggles and Challenges
- The new collective faced social and financial challenges. On one hand, it was trying to break the glass ceiling and storm a male bastion; on the other it needed financial stability, which was hard to come by.
- Finding women reporters from marginalised communities in rural parts of Uttar Pradesh, one of the most populous but economically under-developed states of India, was perhaps only slightly less of a challenge than retaining them.
- Staying independent in a media landscape not conducive to it – local news stories are often sold to the highest bidder, sometimes via advertorial campaigns, and often without any subtlety – and staying true to Khabar Lahariya’s principles and identity continues to be an ongoing struggle.
Khabar Lahariya Goes Digital
- In 2015, Khabar Lahariya began experimenting with digital video content. Results were promising, in a context where rural content was scarce online, and where mobile and data penetration was soaring.
- The team was trained to shoot in depth video stories, and by 2016, KL transitioned to a digital-first organisation.
- Today, through its YouTube channel, website, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media, Khabar Lahariya has an average monthly reach of 7-8 million viewers.
- Khabar Lahariya is a powerful rural watchdog with a team of 11 reporters across 12 districts of Uttar Pradesh, 4 districts of Madhya Pradesh, and since January 2022, it has also begun reporting from Bihar.
Impact
- Khabar Lahariya as a rural media intervention has changed the way that people think about the meaning of ‘media’: by who, for whom, in what language.
- As an independent rural media house, Khabar Lahariya’s biggest impact has been to establish a cadre of full-time women reporters from marginalised communities in areas that still see no women reporters.
- Khabar Lahariya’s stories have had an impact at various levels: from bringing district level officials up to speed with the non-implementation of schemes in remote villages; to the initiation of an investigation into these issues; to actual tangible change on the ground.
- KL’s rural journalism is feminist, reporting on issues of violence against women with an astute understanding of gender and caste structures within which this violence is situated. It is the country’s only women-run brand of ethical and independent rural news.
Chambal Media - Khabar Lahariya’s Mothership
- Khabar Lahariya is housed by Chambal Media, a digital media social enterprise founded in 2015 by a diverse team of rural and urban media practitioners.
- Chambal Media was founded with the mission to bring into the digital revolution in India, the perspectives and involvement of women on the margins.
- With this vision, Chambal produces multimedia content on youth, gender, tech, culture, development, short feature documentaries and live debates on current issues for local, national and international audiences.
Chambal Academy
- In its 2 decade history, over 500 women have been trained offline in digital storytelling by Chambal Media and Khabar Lahariya. Chambal Academy seeks to build on, amplify and accelerate this impact. Chambal Academy will train and equip rural women & girls to engage in the digital public and be storytellers and catalysts for change.
- The first course launched was the - Online Rural Mobile Journalism Course. In the 6 month pilot of this course alone, 270 women from UP, MP and Bihar were trained.