BREAKING NEWS
A new web platform offers bulletins anchored, reported and even shot by children. The aim is to build confidence and help them engage with their community. Meet the kids, and their mentors
In a makeshift newsroom made from bamboo sticks and brightly painted gunny bags, 10-year-old Dheeraj Bhatt is talking into a microphone. “Hello and welcome to the children’s scrapping, err… scrappy news service,” says the chirpy anchor. “Today’s show is about reclaiming our lost playgrounds...” The newsroom is in a fishing village in Mumbai; the walls are covered in glitter and fairy lights. A rickety red car seat serves as the ‘couch’ for guests, who typically include electricians, plumbers, carpenters and local parents.
This is the headquarters of the Scrappy News Service, an initiative of the Delhibased non-profit organisation Going To School (GTS). It has two anchors, including Bhatt, and a team of 2,100 reporters spread across Mumbai; Bengaluru, Tumkur and Mangaluru in Karnataka; 22 towns in Bihar; and Jalandhar in Punjab.
All are aged 10 to 14, from underprivileged families. What started out as a confidence-building exercise is now a website and an app, both of which were launched on Children’s Day (November 14).
So far, 50 videos have been uploaded on the Scrappy News YouTube channel (which has 1,066 subscribers), and 10 on the website.
The launch saw well-known TV journalists like Rajdeep Sardesai, NDTV’s Nidhi Razdan and The News Minute’s Dhanya Rajendran send in videos of how delighted they were to see children engaging with TV, and communities, in fresh new ways.
“Scrappy news is typically what you would call ‘Made in India’ — although I am not,” says British-American Lisa Heydlauff, founder and director of GTS. “Everything from the issues and solutions to the newsrooms themselves is made in India and revolves around the many good and little bad things about this country.”
The hour-long news-cum-talk shows explore issues such as sanitation, climate change, or just how to help out your not-sotech-savvy grandparents.
The scripts are written by the kids, with help from GTS employees, and most shows end with a Scrappy Campaign where kids brainstorm over solutions — for the problem of lonely grandparents, a simple gettogether was organised in a government school in Bhagalpur, complete with film screening and snacks.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Heydlauff came to India from the UK 19 years ago to write a children’s book, and stayed on. She set up GTS in 2003, to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among underprivileged children.
“We started with children from the poorest communities, the idea being that while education is important, kids also need to know how to tackle issues, come up with sustainable ideas, take the initiative,” says Heydlauff.
In 2012, the NGO signed an MoU with the Bihar government to work with students across 2,500 government secondary schools in the state. They now have a presence across three states in India.
“We soon realised that although the kids were brimming with ideas to bring about a change in the world, their own parents did not seem to understand their potential,” says Heydlauff. “Scrappy News started with the idea of showing parents that their kids were fearless, full of creativity and could break down complex issues in their own way to come up with solutions. Then we realised that we needed to take this out to the world.”
To be Scrappy means changing the world with whatever you have, Heydlauff adds. “You don’t need to speak English or have access to top-notch gadgets, you just needs to have a head full of ideas and the enthusiasm to execute them,” she adds.
TRAINING WHEELS
In Mumbai, the Team Scrappy kids recall how, two years ago, a big truck painted in rainbow colours with ‘Be Scrappy’ scrawled all over it showed up in their slums, and began holding auditions.
“We decided to just take our crew and drive around, inviting kids to try out. The results were fantastic. We ended up auditioning some 1,500 kids and four were selected in that first round,” says Padmini Vaidyanathan, 33, Scrappy News director.
Then began the training sessions, with reporters and anchors from major media houses pitching in.
“In Bihar and Karnataka, we trained the kids ourselves,” Vaidyanathan says. “We talked to them about identifying local issues, finding local heroes who were taking on those issues.”
In Mumbai, they had expert help from people like TV journalist-turned-businesswoman Mahruk Inayet, actor Siddhant Behl and stand-up comic Nitesh Shetty.
“We were taught how to speak clearly, practice in front of the mirror and most importantly, know that it is okay to fumble, but not stop,” says Valeska Jacinto, 12, who co-anchors the show with Dheeraj. “Marukh ma’am told us how she covered the 26/11 attacks. That told us what the life of a regular reporter is like.”
Inayet held ten training sessions with the little anchors and reporters in 2015, during their summer vacation.
“It was an eye-opener,” she says. “I was amazed to see how the kids truly had their own perspective to everything. They weren’t inhibited, or conscious of gawking strangers during outdoor shoots. The freshness they bring to the screen is what makes Scrappy News tick so well.”
For Mumbai Scrappy reporter Rajlakshmi Sapkale, 14, a high point was when she sent a YouTube clip of herself interviewing people to her parents back in her village in Maharashtra. “My parents called the neighbours to show them how smart I had become. They were proud because their girl was confident enough to go looking for stories and get answers out of strangers,” she says, laughing shyly.
When they are not arguing about who is stealing whose lines and who is taking up more screen space, Dheeraj and Valeska are good friends. But once Mumbai reporters Samad Sheikh, 15, and Rajlakshmi join them, things can get a bit rowdy.
Dheeraj, for instance, says he doesn’t need a script. “I can never stick to it,” he adds, grinning. “But it’s the job of the anchor to add his bit, isn’t it?”
ON THE GROUND
The Scrappy kids are divided into teams — anchors and reporters, videographers, script-writers, even producers who brainstorm on how it will all be put together. Volunteers do the editing.
The tricky part, the kids say, is looking for news. One of their stories, ‘Horn please’, was about the high-decibel horns in Bhagalpur, Bihar. During investigation, the reporters found out that a lot of people went to garages to make their horns louder. That was a big scoop.
“The end result is that all the kids are doing something they have never done before, and living the life of professional journalists,” says Vikas Dheer, 32, who works with GTS in Muzaffarpur.
Jarang-based government school teacher Ajeet Bhanu, whose daughter Tanu Shri, 14, is a Scrappy News reporter, says he has noticed a huge change in her.
“She recently did a story on the lack of toilets here. When we visited our village, she spoke to girls there about how to keep toilets clean. I was very proud.”
In one episode, Valesca and Dheeraj will discuss the lack of playgrounds in India, with inputs from reporters in Bihar and Karnataka. In Mangaluru, students discussed the lack of places to swim; in Tumkur, they talked about organic farming.
Prajwal C, 12, a Scrappy reporter from Bengaluru, says he had no idea how civic issues were solved till he stepped out to report on them. “I was used to grown-ups asking us questions in class. Today I am the one asking important questions. I was scared of being scolded, people have walked away also, but when I see the final cut on YouTube, I feel like I’m doing something big for society,” he says.