REPORT

week in a range of dialects and editions across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and
says it reaches an estimated 100,000 print readers on a regular basis. 50
Its digital development has been a rapid one – less than a year after it
launched its website and Facebook page in 2013, the newspaper won a ‘Best
of Online Activism’ special award at Deutsche Welle’s Global Media Forum.
It has won a slew of other prizes and has been held up as ‘an exemplary
model for transformative rural media’ by the Wharton Business School and
the CII/KPMG report on ICT in India. 51 The focus on poor, rural readers and
its legacy as a print product does not detract from the importance of digital
for Khabar Lahariya. Kavita says: ‘The young generation carries a smartphone
and a lot of people use it. So we thought that we could also be a part of this,
that people can watch small video clips, see it for real, hear us and see the
reports.’ Disha, another co-­‐‐founder notes:
The website was launched in 2013 and I think in the last one and half years,
on social media platforms, our presence has increased. This includes Facebook,
Twitter and even WhatsApp for the last six–seven months has seen active use.
The collaboration between the network of our reporters and also the network of
local news journalists has also seen active use of these platforms in the last six
to eight months. 52
Digital for Khabar Lahariya is a supplement to, not a substitute for, print. In
far-­‐‐flung villages where electricity and technology are almost absent, a print
product can reach people who remain offline. Disha adds:
Khabar Lahariya’s roots and history is closely associated with literacy
movement. And when Khabar Lahariya started the idea was in areas where the
literacy level is really low, particularly female literacy, if there is a medium of
local language in those areas it could help women and non-­‐‐school goers to
attain and sustain their literacy level in those areas. So local media is
important.
But digital channels can supplement the print product and make local news
available to people who may not pick up the newspaper. The context Khabar
Lahariya operates in has changed in the last years, as mobile penetration has
also increased in poor rural areas. When the website was launched initially it
was just like an archiving system, where some of the stories would be
uploaded on the website, only some would be translated, and it wasn’t so
extensively promoted or circulated. ‘Now we do it actively through social
50
http://sarai.net/khabar-­‐‐lahariya-­‐‐rural-­‐‐empowerment-­‐‐goes-­‐‐digital
51
Awards: http://www.khabarlahariya.in/page.php?pid=12&cid=7#.VpavyJN96t9 (accessed Jan. 2016).
52 Disha, co-­‐‐founder, Khabar Lahariya, interviewed by Arijit Sen.
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