Founded in 2002, Khabar Lahariya is an Indian newspaper led by a team of all-women Dalit reporters and editors, producing independent news in Uttar Predesh and Madhya Pradesh. With a hyper-local focus, Khabar Lahariya operates under the premise that “news in a last-mile village is news, deserving of the same attention as what happens in a city or town.” The newspaper seeks to brings a feminist voice to local media, interrogating and disrupting the status quo to uplift those traditionally marginalized in the media landscape. It has broken barriers to establish women as journalists in small towns and villages where newsmakers have long been men, upper caste, and well-connected to the political system. After almost 20 years of this work, Khabar Lahariya’s reporters are still the outliers, even as more and more young women step into the field. As rural Dalit women, the paper’s staff are pathbreakers across gender and caste, navigating myriad challenges and prejudices that have intensified through the years.
IWMF Awards
- Courage in Journalism Awards , 2021