Reporters Without Orders Ep 177: Tracking rape survivors and a hidden water crisis in UP

This week, host Akanksha Kumar is joined by Aishwarya Iyer, a reporter with the Quint, and Monika Mondal, an independent journalist.

They talk about Aishwarya’s documentary Silencing Rape, which tracks the lives of four sexual assault survivors for over a year in Uttar Pradesh’s impoverished Bundelkhand region. Reflecting on what she gathered from this reporting experience, she says, “As a society we have a long way to go. I honestly don’t have much hope.” 

Uttar Pradesh is also facing a “hidden water crisis”, particularly in Muzaffarnagar. In this context, Akanksha highlights Monika’s report on the Third Pole that tells us how sugar mills are responsible for the degradation of groundwater in the region. 

Monika collected water samples from a Muzaffarnagar home which the Third Pole had analysed in a lab. The water was found to contain the Coliform bacteria and very high levels of inorganic salts such as calcium, magnesium, sodium. “There are so many patients with tuberculosis there, so many patients who have gastrointestinal diseases, so many patients with kidney diseases. So if you go there, every house has some problem, every house has a patient,” Monika says.

This and a lot more as Akanksha, Aishwarya and Monika talk about what made news, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have.

Tune in. 

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