Children from Haiderpur and Lal Quan - two slums in Delhi - have taken initiative to launch their own media and raise issues of local concern. Even though these children live in impoverished conditions with little educational and social opportunities, they are determined to establish credibility of their media in the community and hope to soon be able to influence the decision makers so as to ensure better facilities for their community.

Trained in newspaper reporting in a workshop conducted by Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti in May and June last year, the children are enthused by the successful launch of the paper. Rajeshwari, a class XII student and the editor of the newspaper, called Haiderpur Darpan, is now confident of any reporting assignment and hopes to take up journalism as a career. She and her group are determined to ensure that their bi-monthly wallpaper makes an impact on community. In its first edition, issues such as growing violence on children and inhibition of parents to let their children, especially girls, to go out were taken up.

Presently hand-written, the children have used chart papers the size of a newspaper and also use the same components that make up other newspapers, such as 8-columns having grids, a masthead, a main lead story, interviews, and pictures. Haiderpur Darpan has been pasted in the local bus terminals and market. In Lal Quan, Sadhna, Dipti, Arati and few other children have got together to start Lal Quan Darpan, a community newsletter.

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