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Allahabad: He is all of
12 years but Utkarsh Tripathi painstakingly brings out a
handwritten newspaper every week to spread awareness among his
peers on issues like the environment and female foeticide. And all
this to satisfy his urge to "serve the country".
A Class 8 student of the Brij Bihari Sahai (BBS) Inter College in Allahabad, Utkarsh has been bringing out the newspaper Jagriti for
the last one year.
And for the four-page, black-and-white newspaper, Utkarsh not only
dons the role of a reporter, editor and publisher, but also turns
hawker for circulating the weekly.
Unlike other papers, readers of Jagriti don't have to spend a
single penny -- Utkarsh distributes it free of cost.
"Yes, I manage it all alone. Right from gathering the content, its
editing, publishing and ultimately distributing the copies to
readers," Utkarsh, a resident of Khatju colony in Allahabad, told
IANS.
"I know, you would like to know how I publish the newspaper. First
I prepare a handwritten copy of Jagriti and later take out copies
at a photocopy shop in my locality... It's simple," he explained.
Jagriti has about 150 readers belonging to varied age groups in
Allahabad, some 200 km from the state capital Lucknow.
"Children comprise the major chunk of Jagriti readers...my school
friends, my seniors in school, teachers and also my neighbours,"
he said.
According to Utkarsh's father Hari Prasad, who runs a coaching
institute, his son has a flair for writing and wanted to serve the
country in some way.
"More than a year ago, he read an article on Indo-China relations
in a Hindi daily. I don't know what came into his mind... After
reading the article, he came to me and asked me to suggest a way
he could serve the country," Prasad said.
"At that time I wasn't sure how serious he was about the
question... I said that joining the defence services was one of
the best options to serve the country... To this, he said that he
wanted to start serving the society from his school life itself. I
then suggested why not work like a journalist and make people
aware of their rights," he added.
Utkarsh took the suggestion seriously and came up with Jagriti.
"I named the newspaper Jagriti, as my mission was to make people
aware of various issues affecting them," the 12-year-old said.
"I try to cover social issues pertaining to environment, female
foeticide and others in the editorial section, and also
information about public welfare schemes and important government
policies for the betterment of the poor or children," Utkarsh
added.
Jagriti also has success stories of scientists, political leaders
and other prominent personalities.
But how does he get time from his studies to bring out a weekly
newspaper.
"I believe if anyone is passionate about something, he or she can
take out some time to purse his passion, irrespective of the
hectic schedule," Utkarsh replied.
"I spend some time daily on researching topics and gathering
public utility information from sources like magazines, news
dailies and the internet. On Sunday I get more time to work on my
project and make pictorial representations that could go along
with the articles," he said.
Utkarsh's efforts are much appreciated by people in Allahabad.
"He has shown all of us that an ordinary person can contribute to
the society in one way or other...You just need to have an urge
for that," Kashi Kesarwani, a resident of Chandpur area, told IANS.
Nutan Devi, a local journalist and the boy's neighbour, said; "For
me it's real journalism... It has revived the decades-old
objective of journalism that seems to have now have got lost
somewhere..."
(Asit
Srivastava can be contacted at asit.s@ians.in)
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