The_Mooknayak
The Mooknayak
Online news channel
The Mooknayak is an online news website founded in 2021 with a focus on social justice for the Dalit minority and marginalised people.[1][2][3] The Mooknayak means "the leader of the voiceless" and the online news outlet founded by Dalit journalist Meena Kotwal is named for the Mooknayak newspaper founded by Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar in 1920.[4][5][6]
The stories published in The Mooknayak cover issues concerning Dalits and other marginalized groups in India.[5][7][8] Kotwal has described it as "a Dalit-centred newsroom."[6]
Kotwal founded the online news version of The Mooknayak in 2021,[1] and by 2023, the organization employed 15 journalists, including 9 full-time.[6] News articles are written in English and Hindi, and journalists create videos for the related Youtube channel.[9] By March 2023, the related Youtube channel for the online newspaper had 50,000 subscribers.[1]
The Mooknayak online news outlet is crowdfunded and has received a grant of about $12,000 from the Google News Initiative and about $6,000 from a YouTube training program.[5][6]