Arnab Goswani might soon have some competition. Delhi-based NGO Going To School on Children’s Day (November 14) launched India’s first children’s news service — Scrappy News Service.
Joining the fourth estate with a plan to make radical changes are their own Scrappy news anchors and reporters. The service has been launched on a digital platform.
What makes their services different is that their newsrooms are built completely out of scrap to cater to the Children’s Scrappy News Service.
WHO ARE THE SCRAPPY NEWS ANCHORS?
The Children’s Scrappy News Service which is a makeshift news service, is a news-talk-game show run by kids for kids, taking on India’s biggest problems and solving them with design-thinking and scrappy skills. “These are our young warriors selected from 700 candidates and are geared to find solutions to problems faced by adults and youngsters,” read a statement from the NGO.
Among the Scrappy news anchors is child anchor Dheeraj, 10, who pledges to make sure that adults sit up and pay heed to the issues they address and begin to act on the same. Another child anchor Valeska, 11, says that she feels it important to talk to people who they think can bring about a change and hence is determined to leave no stone unturned to work towards the same.
The newsrooms are being set up in Bengaluru, Mumbai and across 14 places in Bihar. The Scrappy kid anchors will invite guests like electricians, plumbers, carpenters, entrepreneurs, parents among others into the newsroom to discuss pertinent issues. “With top tips from their guests, these kid anchors from their newsroom will connect to kid reporters across India who would be interviewing adults to find solutions to the problems and spending the rest of the day with local heroes also referred to as Scrappy heroes who have a solution to the various problems discussed,” the statement further read.
Lisa Heydlauff, founder and CEO, Going to School and Scrappy News Service says, “The whole purpose of starting the services was to show what kids can do to change the way things are. We have selected topics that revolve around children like why there aren’t enough gardens in India, how we treat street dogs etc.”