Sanjay Kumar- village Nawthnava, Maharajgunj, UP

Sanjay Kumar primarily reports on issues related to caste and education.

Sanjay Kumar has been a committed social activist since he was a child. When he was young, he excelled in school and resisted the discrimination that he faced as a lower caste schoolboy. Unfortunately, caste issues affected him beyond the educational system when the village’s dominant caste grabbed his family’s land. His family was forced to migrate, and Sanjay could not continue his education. Today, Sanjay wants to ensure that no student is denied the right to education. He incorporates video reporting into his social justice work; he filmed his experience leading a local campaign for a school to admit orphaned girls who were denied access. Sanjay understands the importance of government support to guarantee certain services. He has used reporting to pressure local political figures to implement needed development programs.

About the Partnership: The Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme and Video Volunteers have come together to create the Community Correspondents Network. The videos generated by the network will be able to highlight voices from the margins, providing skills to social communicators to provide advocacy tools to community based organizations.