Interview with Anshul Tewari
The dream of a young boy, who wished to give the youth an opportunity and platform to voice their opinions, dreams and journalistic endeavours fructified into the creation of Youth Ki Awaz, which till today retains its independence, fearlessness and authenticity.
Sudhir: You founded India’s No. 1 youth portal, Youth Ki Awaz (YKA), which has millions of readers every month and over 50,000 volunteer journalists across the globe. Where did it all start? What was the inspiration?
Anshul: I grew up with parents who are extremely invested in the news, in seeing what’s happening and current affairs. But I could not find a connection. Neither was my voice nor the regular citizen’s voice being represented. The media was gravitating towards power centres and people’s voices were not being brought out. It was this growing frustration that led to the creation of YKA. I believe that young people are at the centre of any kind of social change and are often told that they need to act to change the world; yet, they severely lack a platform for the same. They are not involved in any kind of decision-making. YKA started, initially, as a personal blog for me; very soon, it became a platform for those who needed to voice themselves.
The media was gravitating towards power centres and people’s voices were not being brought out. It was this growing frustration that led to the creation of YKA.
Sudhir: When you thought of setting up a platform like YKA, did you have some early supporters or detractors? Was it a challenge or was it easy?
Anshul: It did not happen easily! I had several challenges. I was just in college when I realized I want to do this in a big way, full time and get more people involved. I faced a lot of resistance from college professors and students who did not believe in what I was doing and thought that I was wasting my time. In 2010, YKA got an award from the UN, which got us recognized in various circles and gave me access to a lot of people, who I didn’t know existed earlier, working in similar spaces globally. These were people I could talk to, learn and seek motivation from. That played a very big role in helping find people. When I was getting done with college, one of my biggest challenges was that everybody was saying that YKA was not sustainable, I was not getting any money out of it, so why waste time and instead take a job elsewhere, save money and get back to it later or at least pursue a postgraduate.
In 2010, YKA got an award from the UN, which got us recognized in various circles and gave me access to a lot of people, who I didn’t know existed earlier, working in similar spaces globally. These were people I could talk to, learn and seek motivation from. That played a very big role in helping find people.
I remember meeting someone much older than I was, extremely successful in the digital empowerment space, who had dropped out of college. He told me that if I strongly believe in it there is a last mile that I would have to conquer; everyone will suggest that I drop it but I must stick with it instead. He said, if I stick my neck out and do it, I would make it. That conversation made a difference.
Sudhir: There is this platform like yours, where people are voicing their views, and there are people actually working on the ground, making change happen. How do you see these two? Is one more important than the other? How do you see these two fitting?
Anshul: I don’t think one is more important than the other. I see the two complementing each other. I think it’s important to go out and do something about the issues that you are facing and it’s also important to talk about it. Our theory of change at YKA revolves around the fact that any change will only happen if you start talking about the problem first and if you talk about it in a way that reaches out to the right kind of people. It builds momentum, brings together a community around it and builds solidarity. That’s what we have seen through the tremendous amount of impact on ground that several stories we have covered on YKA have had. Getting government bodies to act on issues that they were not taking action on earlier to starting nationwide movements around taboos and stereotypes…these has purely been because of stories online. In the same way, we have seen people, who work on the ground, writing about their own work online and reaching many more people.
I think it’s important to go out and do something about the issues that you are facing and it’s also important to talk about it. Our theory of change at YKA revolves around the fact that any change will only happen if you start talking about the problem first and if you talk about it in a way that reaches out to the right kind of people.
The Internet gives us a platform to reach out to millions of people on the go. I see both these working together. Initially, when I started I was strong-headed and used to think that ours is a better model; over time, I have realized that one needs to go hand-in-hand with the other; the two cannot be separated.
Sudhir: This type of media is often referred as alternative media? Does it compete with the traditional media in terms to getting impact and credibility?
Anshul: There was a time when the Internet-based media was the alternative media. I don’t think that’s the case any more. I think every media today has become mainstream. There are millions of people engaging with all forms of media. In many cases, the number of websites being read are a lot more than the number of people watching a television channel. I think, therefore, that line has blurred now. However, we are at a stage when we have many people trying to do really credible journalism, who are trying to create really credible platforms online. At the same time, we are dealing with one of the most severe news and journalism crises situations of our time. For example, fake news on the Internet is huge. The length and breadth of fake news is unimaginable. It is circulating on platforms that you cannot look into and cannot trace its origin. This has dire consequences—people believe in and act out, based on things that are not true.
I think every media today has become mainstream. There are millions of people engaging with all forms of media. In many cases, the number of websites being read are a lot more than the number of people watching a television channel.
It is an interesting time for media. These are challenges we need to go through, a churning we must face to be able to create a better mechanism of dealing with information and news. Challenges like fake news are definitely causing a lot of harm, and making both online and televisions media lose credibility.
Sudhir: Is the platform more about urban issues or are rural issues across the country being covered as well?
Anshul: So, it’s a great mix. When YKA started, Internet penetration was much lower. And that’s why the issues you would see on the platform then were from the point of view of those who were urban, talking about issues around them and their immediate proximity. Over the last 3.5 to 4 years, we are seeing a sea change in the way people are talking about issues. The issues discussed are more local, more regional in nature. When we launched in Hindi, we saw a turn of events. A good chunk of the content that we started getting in Hindi was actually rural and peri-urban. Today, on the platform, you will find stories never heard of earlier from people of rural or peri-urban areas bringing about change, or issues like open defecation, being talked about by people facing those problems directly, and it has really facilitated such conversations on the platform. Issues about caste, class, education from a very diverse lens, all well represented on the platform. And I imagine this is only going to grow when we go more regional and vernacular in our approach.
Over the last 3.5 to 4 years, we are seeing a sea change in the way people are talking about issues. The issues discussed are more local, more regional in nature. When we launched in Hindi, we saw a turn of events. A good chunk of the content that we started getting in Hindi was actually rural and peri-urban.
Sudhir: How does YKA sustain itself? What is the model you operate on? And now that you are looking to do other things too, how will it continue working?
Anshul: When we wanted to formally register YKA, there was a big dilemma about whether we wanted to be a for profit or non-profit organization. We wanted to be independent and represent people’s voices, whether people are angry or happy. That’s when the idea of a sustainable business model really came in. If you see the website, you will not see any advertisements, we are not going the conventional way to sustain ourselves. What we do instead is tie up with high-impact organizations such as Facebook or the UN, and run campaigns for them. These organizations then come on board to back the issues we are talking about and they help our community talk about those issues at scale. We are facilitating this conversation at scale with hundreds of thousands of young people. So this became a model to sustain ourselves.
We wanted to be independent and represent people’s voices, whether people are angry or happy. That’s when the idea of a sustainable business model really came in.
And recently, we ventured out into events and doing more offline work, where we started getting people and organizations to figure out how they could support this work. All of these initiatives have blended together and we have managed to not just sustain YKA but also make it profitable. We put the profit back into the causes for which we are working.
Sudhir: Would you like to share some stories that have had such a great impact on the ground and that you are especially proud of?
Anshul: A journalist who had done an investigative case from Nepal, could not get her story published in several media outlets because they thought it was not important enough. She decided to publish on YKA. The story was about how young women from Nepal are trafficked to Bombay for their skin tissue, for the illegal plastic surgery industry. It was all around the obsession with fair skin and how it runs a billion-dollar illegal industry in India. The life of those young women after the skin tissue is extracted from them is reduced to sex work and abandonment. When the story got published on YKA, it was read by half a million people in just a week. It was covered widely by the international media and became a big issue across the Internet. Reuters wrote about it and people talked about how it broke out on YKA.
One of the biggest youth-led movements of the country about unfair rules on college campuses called Pinjra Tod started because somebody decided to write an article about it on YKA. This was a trigger for the movement.
The momentum was such that the Nepal government was forced to set up a probe and act on it. This issue had been known before; but now that it became an issue talked about globally, they were forced to act.
One of the biggest youth-led movements of the country about unfair rules on college campuses called Pinjra Tod started because somebody decided to write an article about it on YKA. This was a trigger for the movement. There have been many such stories that had an impact on the ground.
Sudhir: And where do you see YKA going from here?
Anshul: We don’t think that we have solved the problem that we set out to solve yet. Obviously, we have given space to thousands of people to speak up; yet, there are many millions who don’t have an opportunity to speak up. For us, the next few years involve creating a platform that is accessible to people, regardless of the language they speak and the background they come from—a space that is not just focused on the Internet/non-Internet audience. We want to merge the two; this is what we are aiming at in the next few years. We need to create more formats of platforms for young people with different opinions, languages and experiences, to have more impact. Our ultimate goal is to move this generation out of a culture of silence and more into a culture of action, engagement and speaking up. We want to see a world where speaking up is the norm. That’s the motivation behind it. I know that we are not going to stop till we see that to some end.
Sudhir: What are your thoughts for the younger generation entering the development sector or platforms like yours?
Anshul: First, that there are no quick-fix solutions; one needs to persevere and stick it out. There is not going to be an easy way out of challenges. Second, young entrepreneurs need to stay determined and humble because humility and empathy are at the core. Without these two qualities, you may build an enterprise but it might not have an impact.
Young entrepreneurs need to stay determined and humble because humility and empathy are at the core. Without these two qualities, you may build an enterprise but it might not have an impact.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sudhir Sahni works with PRADAN as Director (Partnerships). He is a management graduate from IIM Ahmedabad (1988 batch), with over 27 years’ experience in Marketing, Advertising, and Communication.