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Narsamma belongs to a group of female reporters and editors who have sprung up from the margins of Indian society to report, for the past seven years, on conditions in the poor rural villages where they live and make a name for themselves as the country's "barefoot" media.

In 1995 the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action affirmed the importance of media for women's empowerment. In 1997, women from 75 villages in and around Pastapur decided they needed their own media to express themselves, facilitate dialogue across rural communities, document and analyze local events and issues and convey information and ideas to the outside world.

They may not have heard of the Beijing Platform, but they obviously understood its logic. They were convinced that access to and control over media would help them and their communities.

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