Meena Kotwal is an Indian journalist, and the founder of The Mooknayak, an online news channel and website focused on social justice for the Dalit, minority and marginalised people.[1][2][3]
Biography
Meena was raised in a Dalit neighborhood in New Delhi.[4] Her parents earned little from their work as laborers.[4] Meena attended the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi (2013-14 batch) and studied radio and television journalism.[5] She also attended Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Delhi, and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University.[5]
Meena had worked as a broadcast journalist at the Hindi language division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in New Delhi, India from September 2017 to July 2019.[6] She has said her BBC contract was not renewed after she was outed as Dalit by a colleague and then experienced discrimination, and had her formal complaint denied as lacking "merit or substance" by the BBC.[4]
She also contributes opinion pieces for The Wire, The Print, The Shudra, Youth Ki Awaz and Feminism in India.[7][8] Her open letter to popular Indian actress Kangana Ranaut was published by The Wire,[9] and the republished in Indian languages and Nepali.[2] She has also worked for National Dastak, an online platform which focuses on the stories of marginalised identities.Template:Citation needed
On 25 December 2021, she posted an online video of herself burning the Manusmriti.[10] She then began to receive death threats and rape threats, and the Delhi Police registed a FIR about the threats.[10] In January 2022, she explained her reasoning for burning the Manusmriti: "The Manusmriti contains a lot of anti-women and anti-Dalit content. Babasaheb Ambedkar had also burned the Manusmriti, on 25 December 1927. Since then, Ambedkarites have been observing the day as Manusmriti Dahan Divas."[10] In February 2022, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and others at the UN wrote to the Indian government to express concern about the threats directed at Kotwal.[11]
She founded The Mooknayak in 2021,[1] and by 2023, employs 10 journalists.[12] She has described it as "a Dalit-centred newsroom."[12] The stories published in The Mooknayak cover issues concerning Dalits and other marginalized groups in India.[4][3] By March 2023, the related YouTube channel for the online newspaper had 50,000 subscribers.[1]
Honours and awards
- 2020 Indian Institute of Mass Communication Alumni Association (IIMCAA) Award for Developmental Reporting[5]
- 2020 Indian Institute of Mass Communication Alumni Association (IIMCAA) Award for Investigative Reporting[5]
Personal life
Meena resides in New Delhi and has a daughter. She is married to Raja Pandey.[4]
External links
- India: intimidation and threats against Meena Kotwal (joint communication). UN SR Human Rights Defenders(2022-04-07). Retrieved 2022-04-10.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Dalit journalist takes aim at changing history with stories of India’s marginalized. Arab News(15 Mar 2023). Retrieved 7 Apr 2023.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 FII Interviews: Journalist Meena Kotwal On Minority Politics, Journalism Today And The Caste Divide, Singh, Stuti Paul. Feminism in India(23 Feb 2023). Retrieved 7 Apr 2023.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 In India, calls for a caste census grow as more seek to benefit from affirmative action policies. South China Morning Post(22 September 2021). Retrieved 29 July 2022.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 With Stories of Her Oppressed Community, a Journalist Takes Aim at the Walls of Caste. The New York Times(March 6, 2023). Retrieved 25 April 2023.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Twocircles.net journalist Meena Kotwal wins IIMCAA Awards. TwoCircles.net(12 February 2020). Retrieved 1 July 2022.
- ↑ Dalit journalist accuses BBC Hindi of discrimination, says was let go due to caste. ThePrint(2019-08-13). Retrieved 2022-01-25.
- ↑ Meena Kotwal : Exclusive News Stories by Meena Kotwal on Current Affairs, Events at The Wire. The Wire. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ↑ Author: Meena Kotwal, Kotwal, Meena. फेमिनिज़म इन इंडिया. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ↑ A Letter to Kangana Ranaut On Caste and Reservation. The Wire. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 'Right Wingers Threatening to Rape Me for Burning Manusmriti': Dalit Journalist. The Quint(12 January 2022). Retrieved 29 July 2022.
- ↑ UN writes to India over inaction on death threats to Dalit journalist. Pakistan Today(9 April 2022). Retrieved 29 July 2022.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 ‘Leading the voiceless’ - how low-caste Indian journalists are crowdfunding their own newsrooms. Al Jazeera Journalism Review(February 13, 2023). Retrieved 21 February 2023.