Wikipedia
Balaknama is an Indian newspaper produced by children.
The staff meet much like that of an editotial meeting at any other newspaper. But Balaknama is different because it is completely staffed by children who live and work on the streets. The eight-page paper publishes stories based on the lives of street children. It explores issues like sexual abuse, child labour, police brutality as well as feel-good stories.
In 2009 when she met volunteers of Chetna, an NGO which works with street and working children, Chandni had little hope for the future. By 2014, she had worked her way up and taken over as Balaknama’s editor. The circulation has gone up from 4,000 to 5,500 since she took over as editor. The newspaper has 14 regular reporters in Delhi itself and many others in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana. Plus children who cannot write dictate their stories to regular reporters.
In 2015 India Today called it the "World's unique newspaper for and by street and working children".
An estimated 10 million children live on the streets and have to work to survive in India. Yet the paper, priced at two rupees (three cents) and financed and published by Chetna, has been struggling to find advertisers and has not received any funding from the government.
The newspaper launched in 2003 with just a few reporters in New Delhi. Their network has now spread to seven cities across India, with almost 10,000 children working for the publication.
The story has been made into a TV documentary "Slumkid reporters", first screened on 2 November 2013, reported on this group of children living in an Indian slum who run their own newspaper. The star is 18-year-old Vijay Kumar, chief reporter for Balaknama who used to be a child delinquent.