Meena Kotwal
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Jamia Millia Islamia
Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University
Meena Kotwal | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Alma mater | Indian Institute of Mass Communication (2013-14 batch) Jamia Millia Islamia Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Years active | 2015–present |
| Notable work | the founder of ‘The Mooknayak’ |
Meena Kotwal is an Indian journalist, and the founder of The Mooknayak, an online news channel and website focused on social justice for the Dalit, minority and marginalised people.[1][2][3]
Meena was raised in a Dalit neighborhood in New Delhi.[4] Her parents earned little from their work as laborers.[4] Meena attended the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi (2013-14 batch) and studied radio and television journalism.[5] She also attended Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Delhi, and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University.[5]
Meena had worked as a broadcast journalist at the Hindi language division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in New Delhi, India from September 2017 to July 2019.[6] She has said her BBC contract was not renewed after she was outed as Dalit by a colleague and then experienced discrimination, and had her formal complaint denied as lacking "merit or substance" by the BBC.[4]
She also contributes opinion pieces for The Wire, The Print, The Shudra, Youth Ki Awaz and Feminism in India.[7][8] Her open letter to popular Indian actress Kangana Ranaut was published by The Wire,[9] and the republished in Indian languages and Nepali.[2] She has also worked for National Dastak, an online platform which focuses on the stories of marginalised identities.[citation needed]
On 25 December 2021, she posted an online video of herself burning the Manusmriti.[10] She then began to receive death threats and rape threats, and the Delhi Police registed a FIR about the threats.[10] In January 2022, she explained her reasoning for burning the Manusmriti: "The Manusmriti contains a lot of anti-women and anti-Dalit content. Babasaheb Ambedkar had also burned the Manusmriti, on 25 December 1927. Since then, Ambedkarites have been observing the day as Manusmriti Dahan Divas."[10] In February 2022, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and others at the UN wrote to the Indian government to express concern about the threats directed at Kotwal.[11]
She founded The Mooknayak in 2021,[1] and by 2023, employs 10 journalists.[12] She has described it as "a Dalit-centred newsroom."[12] The stories published in The Mooknayak cover issues concerning Dalits and other marginalized groups in India.[4][3] By March 2023, the related YouTube channel for the online newspaper had 50,000 subscribers.[1]
Honours and awards
- 2020 Indian Institute of Mass Communication Alumni Association (IIMCAA) Award for Developmental Reporting[5]
- 2020 Indian Institute of Mass Communication Alumni Association (IIMCAA) Award for Investigative Reporting[5]