For 23 years, Khabar Lahariya has been reporting the news from Bundelkhand, a hilly region between northern Madhya Pradesh and southern Uttar Pradesh. Led entirely by women, most of them Dalit, Muslim or Adivasi, this hyperlocal news outlet also proudly serves up its news through a naariwadi chasma (feminist lens). Across mediums from its website to YouTube and Instagram, Khabar Lahariya is transforming social attitudes to gender and caste. And it’s transforming the lives of the women who work there.

What is the mission? Have things changed? And how did Khabar Lahariya become such a powerhouse?

In their words, this is Kavita Bundelkhandi, the CEO of Chambal Media which owns Khabar Lahariya and reporter Shiv Devi.

Kavita Bundelkhandi (KB): There’s an interesting back story to how Khabar Lahariya started in 2002 in Chitrakoot district. There used to be a newspaper in the early nineties called Mahila Dakiya which was in the local language, reporting on local issues. I was associated with that paper. After it shut down, there was no paper in any village in the district that reflected the voices of the people and their news. There were so many issues that we felt were important but nobody from mainstream media was reporting them.

We needed a paper that would reflect rural voices, particularly those of Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi people and the problems of development.

In those days media was dominated by men, particularly upper-caste, urban, businessmen. They had no idea of the issues in rural India. We felt there was a need to reflect rural voices and issues through a naariwadi chasma (feminist lens). Rural people too had a right to be heard.

This was the thought behind launching Khabar Lahariya: To report on the problems of the villages and also highlight the good news. But mainly we wanted to prove that women, and especially rural women, could work; that even those without journalistic degrees could work.

We gathered together Adivasi, Muslim and Dalit women. It was hard to find educated women. Even I had not studied as a child and completed my education only after marriage. We put together a team of women, trained them and made them journalists. Our focus was on rural areas, so the language of our paper was also Bundeli, so that people could read and understand the news in their own language.

When the paper went out to people’s homes, they felt it was their own paper, this paper run by local women reporting on local news. That connection was very big.

Shiv Devi (SD): I’m from Banda. I joined Khabar Lahariya in 2011. I am a single woman, Dalit with very little education. I heard about Khabar Lahariya as a........

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