Media volunteers teach slum children journalism
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Four Indian students of journalism have come together to train 20 slum children in journalism. The result: Udayachal, the children’s own newspaper which highlights problems and concerns of their community. The children belong to Madangir and Khanpur slums in South Delhi.
The four students, Indu Gupta, Priyanka Gulati, Sneha Saxena and Tanvi Saxena are volunteers of Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti and have been able to motivate the children from the slums of Madangir and Khanpur to understand and practice journalism. This effort is part of Gandhi Smriti’s Gandhi Media Literacy Programme initiated in 2003 to commemorate the centenary year of Mahatma Gandhi’s Indian Opinion. Gandhi launched Indian Opinion, a journal to highlight the problems of Indians in South Africa in 1903. The quarterly newspaper, Udayachal, reflects the views of the children regarding different issues and what they think are critical concerns of their community. This is the fourth such community newspaper launched in Delhi by Gandhi Smriti in association with volunteer groups and Samatvam - the media volunteers group. Samatvam volunteers, all media persons, have been going to the community to train children in media reporting. According to Yogesh Nainavat the editor of Udayachal, media training has enabled them to look at issues more critically, besides giving them an opportunity to interact and interview lots of people. "Just watch us for the next six months and we will be able to do wonders," says Jyoti, associate editor, "Udayachal is not just meant to be a newspaper, we hope to initiate community action through this. We hope to create awareness on issues such as sanitation and cleanliness in our locality through Udayachal." The first issue carries stories on street children, the pathetic road conditions in Khanpur and Madangir, problems for the youth of today, and a feature on Gandhi as a journalist. The children are part of Kalyanam, a volunteer group working in the slums. Mr R B Prashant, Director, Kalyanam says his organization aims to bring out such small community newspapers by children in all the slums in which he is working. "This is an important step towards helping the children in forming their own world view," he adds. "While initiating media training for these children, we decided to teach the basics of news reporting, how to write features and how to interview", says Priyanka Gulati, one of the student volunteers. "We also aim to facilitate critical understanding of the media amongst these children," says Indu Gupta, another volunteer. In this regard, the first issue carries an analysis by the children on negative values many television serials are perpetuating these days. According to Sneha Saksena, working for Udayachal has ensured that the children are more self confident than when they started, helping their personality development. "Many of the girls were not even allowed to interact and there were no opportunities for them, things are changing now and they are coming out," added Tanvi Saxena. Meanwhile Shantum Seth, Advisor, Volunteer Promotion at UNDP, underscores the need for more media-persons to volunteer and work with underprivileged sections of the society. "More and more children can benefit if more media persons becomes volunteers of groups like Samatvam and work for them," he avers, "They can volunteer as per their convenience and time." ---------------- Vedabhyas Kundu is a member of the team of Volunteer Editors contributing to the OneWorld Volunteering Guide |
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