Balaknama (Voice of Children): A Voz das
Crianças em situação de rua em Delhi (India)
The street children who run a newspaper
in India
By Anasuya BasuDelhi
29 december 2015
A group of
street children are busy in an unusual editorial meeting in a house in the
Indian capital, Delhi.
They are bound
by a shared passion to bring out Balaknama (Voice of Children), an eight-page
quarterly newspaper which focuses on children living and working on the
streets.
It proudly
calls itself the "world's unique newspaper for and by street and working
children".
Eighteen-year-old
Chandni, the newspaper's editor, joins the animated discussion over the content
of the next edition of the paper whose circulation has gone up from 4,000 to
5,500 copies since she took over a year ago.
The reporters
have either been street children or have worked as child labourers in Delhi and
neighbouring states. They were rescued by Chetna, an NGO that works for the
rehabilitation of street children.
By one
estimate, more than 10 million children live on the streets and are forced into
work in India.
'Cathartic'
From working as
a street performer with her father to rag picking to support the family,
Chandni's life has been a tale of grinding poverty.
The NGO's
outreach programme enthused her to join a school and also gave her a modest
stipend to keep her from going back to rag picking. It also trained her as a
reporter.
"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," says Chandni.
"It's not
only cathartic but also gives each one of us a sense of purpose. We can only
become better from here."
She manages a
bureau of 14 reporters who cover Delhi and neighbouring states of Haryana,
Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Most reporters
narrate their copy to colleagues in the Delhi office on the phone because they
often have no access to e-mail or fax.
Chandni
conducts two editorial meets every month to keep a sharp eye on the content.
The broadsheet
is priced at two rupees (three cents) and is financed and published by Chetna.
But it has been struggling to find advertisers and has not received any funding
from the government.
Limited resources
Shanno, 19, is
a fifth-grade school dropout. Working long hours and putting up with a
"drunk father" was Shanno's life story.
Today she is
studying for a degree in social work and hopes to have a career as a social
activist. She also trains other reporters at the newspaper.
"We did a
sample survey of street and working children in Delhi in November and managed
to track down 1,320 children living on the streets and working as
labourers," she says.
"We wanted
to tell the police and the government that a proper count of street children
was possible. If we can do it with limited resources, so can they when they
have all the manpower and resources available to them."
"There's
been talk of a survey of street children to be conducted by the Delhi
government and also the police but nothing has come of it so far," she
adds.
Shambhu, who
also works at the newspaper, says he faced a lot of opposition and endured
threats while doing the survey.
"We had to
face a lot of opposition and even threats when we went to talk to children
working in restaurants and hotels because their employers were belligerent. But
we firmly told them that we will call the child helpline number if they did not
allow us talk to the children," he says.
Reaching out to
children stuck in private homes, restaurants and factories gave a sense of
purpose to 15-year-old Chandni (junior).
She echoes the
pain and horror of many nameless children in the stories that she files for the
paper. Chandni (junior) is slated to take over as the next editor of the
newspaper.
"I want to
increase the reach of our newspaper and make it a profit making venture. It's
the voice of all of us who have survived hardships on the streets, in other
people's homes and sweat shops and can now speak for many others who continue
to struggle. Their silence must be heard," she says.
Reproduzido de BBC
29 dez 2015Follow Balaknama on Facebook.
Fotos: Mansi Thapliyal
Balaknama
(Voice of Children), is an eight-page quarterly newspaper run by a group of
street children, from a house in Delhi. Each edition focuses on children living
and working on the streets. (India Today)
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