Click to play videoPatna: He's a presswala in more ways than one. Gauri Shanker Rajak of Dumka irons clothes as well as brings out a daily newspaper.
He washes and irons clothes for a living in Dumka village in Jharkhand, but Gauri Shanker Rajak's true passion is a different kind of press. Rajak is reporter, editor and printer of the Din Dalit - a weekly newspaper which he's been writing by hand for the last 21 years.
"This paper goes to every nook and corner of Dumka. That's how the paper's circulation is growing," says he proudly.
The little money that Rajak earns from his washing, he spends on his newspaper. Like any good journalist, he has his sources who give him enough information for his four-page weekly.
Over a hundred copies are photocopied and pasted on walls across the city, with reports on corruption, human right violations, and Dalit issues.
"I write everything myself, but it costs money to make photocopies. I make a 100 copies every week. I give 50 of these copies to government officials and intellectuals," says he.
And his readers are ever appreciative.
Says a local of Dumka, Erricson Hansda, "Though the circulation is limited,he writes very well. He spends his own money on the paper."
For 21 years, this newspaper has been a voice for Dalits in Dumka. Rajak says that all he wants is do is spend the rest of his life writing Din Dalit and continuing to give Dumka all the week's news - in black and white.
(With inputs from Vikas Prasad Sah in Dumka)
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