Reporters Without Orders Ep 185: BJP bets on Taliban, Covid harms rural children’s learning

This week, host Akanksha Kumar is joined by Kashif Kakvi of NewsClick and Ashwine Singh of Newslaundry.

The conversation begins with Kashif's story about how the BJP is using the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan as a tool to counter the anti-incumbency against its government in Madhya Pradesh. To this end, Kashif notes, the Hindu supremacist party organised a seminar for their IT Cell workers in Bhopal on September 9 titled, “The political rise of radical Islam and challenges to India’s security”.

Ashwine talks about his report on how the pandemic has affected the learning of schoolchildren aged 10-14. A survey conducted by the School Children’s Online and Offline Learning in 15 states and union territories, Ashwine says, found only eight percent of the children in rural areas were studying regularly while 37 percent were not studying at all. Nearly half the children surveyed could read only a few words. Online learning is no substitute for offline learning, he concludes.

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

Tune in.

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Recorded by Jude Weston, produced by Parikshit Sanyal, edited by Satish Kumar.

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