Children from Indian slums become reporters for newspaper

A NEWSPAPER is giving a voice to children from India’s slums - by employing them as reporters

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Videographer / director: Shams Qari
Producer: Haziq Qadri, Ellie Winstanley
Editor: Ian Phillips

The newspaper, Balaknama, is run by children from the slums in Delhi

Translated as ‘Voice of Children’, Balaknama is run and edited by street children, many of whom are former drug addicts despite their tender age.

The paper currently employs 70 “talkative reporters” across seven areas - street children who are often illiterate or in the early stages of learning to write.

There are currently 14 official reporters for the newspaper in the Indian slums

They feed back leads and stories to the 14-strong team of senior reporters.

The newspaper’s editor, Chandni, 18, was a street entertainer and a rag picker, said: “Balaknama is a newspaper of street and working children. Its first edition came out in 2003.

The first edition came out in 2003 and it now functions as an eight page monthly newspaper

“It is published by street and working kids only, and only they are responsible for its reporting, editing and publishing.”

The stories focus on poor children living in slums and the problems they face

The newspaper is closely associated with local centres that provide rehabilitation, education and essentials to children with no one else to turn to, run by NGOs such as the Federation for Street and Working Children and Childhood Enhancement through Training and Action.

Editorial meetings take place every month with the reporters

The newspaper focuses on children living and working on the streets, who report on the conditions experienced by them and their acquaintances in day-to-day life - and has carried exposes of child labour and police malpractice.

Local centres, education and essentials for children are closely associated with Balaknama

Chandni said: “Our newspaper mostly focuses on poor kids living in slums. We focus on the problems they face. The stories of people living in slums are not covered in the mainstream media.”

A selection of the children who write for the tabloid are recovering drug addicts

The circulation of the newspaper is growing and the new recruits are flourishing. Its circulation has gone up from 4,000 to 5,500 copies in the past one year.

The newspaper is financed and published by an NGO and priced at two rupees, with copies delivered at local police stations and other NGOs.

The newspaper is currently thriving as circulation numbers have increased

“Balaknama gets published every month, and 5000 copies get printed,” 16-year-old reporter Jyoti, who was a into drugs before joining the newspaper, said.

“The main goal behind our newspaper was to focus to our lives. We were taking drugs all the time. This newspaper changed our life. This paper also focusses on the issues related to child labour and child marriage.”