asa street performer with her father to rag picking to support the family,Chandni's life has been a tale of grinding poverty.The NGO'soutreach programme enthused her to join a school and also gave her a modeststipend to keep her from going back to rag picking. It also trained her as areporter."I am veryproud of editing this paper because it's one of its kind in India. Childrenwhose childhood have been robbed, have gone hungry, begged, been abused andforced to work write about other children who are going through similartribulations," says Chandni."It's notonly cathartic but also gives each one of us a sense of purpose. We can onlybecome better from here."She manages abureau of 14 reporters who cover Delhi and neighbouring states of Haryana,Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.Most reportersnarrate their copy to colleagues in the Delhi office on the phone because theyoften have no access to e-mail or fax.Chandniconducts two editorial meets every month to keep a sharp eye on the content.The broadsheetis priced at two rupees (three cents) and is financed and published by Chetna.But it has been struggling to find advertisers and has not received any fundingfrom the government.Limited resourcesShanno, 19, isa fifth-grade school dropout. Working long hours and putting up with a"drunk father" was Shanno's life story.Today she isstudying for a degree in social work and hopes to have a career as a socialactivist. She also trains other reporters at the newspaper."We did asample survey of street and working children in Delhi in November and managedto track down 1,320 children living on the streets and working aslabourers," she says."We wantedto tell the police and the government that a proper count of street childrenwas possible. If we can do it with limited resources, so can they when theyhave all the manpower and resources available to them.""There'sbeen talk of a survey of street children to be conducted by the Delhigovernment and also the police but nothing has come of it so far," sheadds.Shambhu, whoalso works at the newspaper, says he faced a lot of opposition and enduredthreats while doing the survey."We had toface a lot of opposition and even threats when we went to talk to childrenworking in restaurants and hotels because their employers were belligerent. Butwe firmly told them that we will call the child helpline number if they did notallow us talk to the children," he says.Reaching out tochildren stuck in private homes, restaurants and factories gave a sense ofpurpose to 15-year-old Chandni (junior).She echoes thepain and horror of many nameless children in the stories that she files for thepaper. Chandni (junior) is slated to take over as the next editor of thenewspaper."I want toincrease the reach of our newspaper and make it a profit making venture. It'sthe voice of all of us who have survived hardships on the streets, in otherpeople's homes and sweat shops and can now speak for many others who continueto struggle. Their silence must be heard," she says.Reproduzido de BBC29 dez 2015Follow Balaknama on Facebook.Fotos: Mansi ThapliyalBalaknama(Voice of Children), is an eight-page quarterly newspaper run by a group ofstreet children, from a house in Delhi. Each edition