[Watch/Read] Khabar Lahariya: First Newspaper Run Entirely By Women

Source: khabarlahariya, RuralIndiaOnline

Khabar Lahariya (News Waves) is an eight-page weekly newspaper in local languages, produced by a collective of rural women journalists in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It is the first multi-edition newspaper in the country run entirely by women. A team of over 40 women across eight districts sells 6,000 copies every week. The newspaper has more than 80,000 readers across 600 ‘media-dark’ villages in the two states.

This weekly rural newspaper is written, edited, illustrated, produced and marketed by a group of women – most of them from marginalised Dalit, Kol and Muslim communities. The publication began in 2002 in the Chitrakoot district of Uttar Pradesh in North India. The newspaper has six active editions in Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Lucknow, Banaras, and Sitamarhi (Bihar). Each week, 6,000 copies of Khabar Lahariya are sold across 600 villages of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, reaching a readership of 80,000. In March 2004, Khabar Lahariya received the prestigious Chameli Devi Jain Award – an annual award for outstanding women journalists from Media Foundation, New Delhi. In 2009, it won international recognition by being awarded the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, a prize honoring outstanding contribution to literacy.

Their website: khabarlahariya