Balaknama | Delhi’s street children inspire change with newspaper

Here's your dose of inspiration for the new year. In 2010, an NGO named Chetna enrolled 18-year-old Chandni in an open school programme, while she simultaneously trained as a reporter for a tabloid named Balaknama. Balaknama, which means children's voice, is an eight-page tabloid that publishes stories on the lives of street children. It delves into issues of sexual abuse, child labour, police brutality-- and about the positive change in their lives. By 2014, she had worked her way up and taken over the reins as Balaknama's editor. Today, she along with other street children in Delhi are quietly transforming their lives with this newspaper that is run and edited by them. And the circulation, she says proudly, has gone up from 4,000 to 5,500 since she took over as editor last year.