United Nations Radio

Dalit women

An organization, which set up a newspaper in India, staffed by marginalized women, who had only just learned to read and write, has been awarded a prestigious prize.

Nirantar, an NGO in New Delhi, received UNESCO's King Sejong Literacy Prize 2009 for establishing Khabar Lahariya, a publication launched in a remote area of Uttar Pradesh in the north of the country.

Chris Weeks spoke to Shalini Joshi, co-director of Nirantar, who says the newspaper challenges many social conventions head-on:

Joshi: There aren't very many women journalists, and most journalists are the more educated, upper-caste men. Many of the women who are part of the newspaper are newly-literate; they are also Dalit, and tribal. So to have these women work as journalists, in a domain which is dominated by men, has been quite challenging. And to also establish them as journalists, to train them.

Weeks: So, for those of us who aren't familiar, tell us about the caste system in India - and you said these people are from the Dalit community?

Joshi: One is a Dalit by birth. It's not as if you can change your caste, and many of them are also considered to be untouchables. To have these women work as journalists - this is considered to be something that only upper-castes can do.

Weeks: So I guess, what you're proving is that, if someone is born a Dalit, they could be just as good a newspaper journalist as anyone else in the country - and it sounds as though that hasn't been widely accepted?

Joshi: Yes, that's right - or maybe even better. Because once you are trained to be a journalist, and you are a Dalit woman journalist, it also means that your understanding of operation and of marginalisation is very different from another journalist. So writing about some of the local issues, and many of these are issues to do with corruption with violence and oppression, I think a Dalit woman journalist's comment on a piece like that would be very different.

Weeks: So how is this journalism received? Has there been opposition to it?

Joshi: Yes, there has been. It's not been so easy. The woman who are part of the newspaper have been challenged quite often because, if they are writing about a news report on corruption, it's not so easy because they live in the same community and has also meant that they have had to face reactions from the community, from those in power.

Weeks: I would imagine that some of these journalists must be quite brave because you have to be brave in certain situations as a journalist in any case, but if you're newly literate, you're from a very low standing in this caste system, and you're exposing corruption, I would imagine they have to really be quite brave to get these stories?

Joshi: Yes, and this is also an area which has high rates of violence, so there is caste-based violence, there is violence against women. For many of them, to cover stories itself has been quite challenging so, like you said, yes, I mean, I think they are definitely brave.

Shalini Joshi, co-director of Nirantar, the recipient of this year's UNESCO literacy prize.

Duration: 2'40"