[VIDEO] These Women are Taking News to 600 Villages in UP and Bihar

Belonging to marginalised communities in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, these women are breaking many barriers and stereotypes on a daily basis. They work with India’s first newspaper run entirely by women, and are successfully taking grassroots journalism to a whole new level.

Meet Suneeta, a 27-year-old woman from Banda district of Uttar Pradesh. She had to leave school at the age of nine and was married off when she was only 12.

Today, she is a successful journalist.

Suneeta works for Khabar Lahariya – India’s first newspaper run entirely by women. Her job includes reporting issues from the most rural villages of the state, and then taking the published news back to the rural population.

Started in 2002, Khabar Lahariya is an eight-page weekly local newspaper that is sold across 600 villages of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It was conceptualized by a Delhi-based NGO called Nirantar. Beginning as the only Bundeli newspaper in India, Khabar Lahariya is now published in 7 local languages..

And Suneeta, is one of the 40 women journalists who run it right from scratch– they write, edit, photograph, design and distribute about 8,000 copies of the paper every week.

Like her, most of the reporters belong to marginalised communities. They break many barriers and stereotypes on a daily basis to empower the rural population and provide them with easy access to news.

Here is a glimpse of how these women are making real news matter, and changing lives in the process:

This video was originally published here.

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