NEWS-DOCS: What Words Alone Can’t Say
Nepal has been making global headlines after a mass youth uprising forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign, paving the way for an interim government led by former Chief Justice Sushila Karki. Triggered by a controversial social media ban, the protests quickly grew into a movement against corruption, nepotism and authoritarianism. Nineteen Gen Z protesters were killed in police firing on September 8, sparking nationwide grief and anger, but also a surge of hope for change. For the first time, Nepal has appointed a woman as interim prime minister, and a cabinet of non-partisan professionals is attempting to steer the country toward elections in March 2026.
Political thinkers, activist and youth groups like Hami Nepal are now shaping the idea of a “new” Nepal through citizen assemblies, proposals for decentralised governance and calls for institutional reform. Newsreel Asia’s Harshita Rathore spoke with Prashant Singh, a social activist from Nagarik Pratham, to understand what this moment means for Nepal’s political evolution, the grassroots nature of the movement, and the new political imagination young Nepalis are bringing to the table.
Suleman Ali lived his entire life in Hasila Beel, a village in Assam’s Goalpara district. He built his home brick by brick over years of labor, married off his daughters there, and believed his documents proved he belonged. But one morning in June 2025, bulldozers reduced it all to rubble.
In Goalpara alone, over three thousand families lost their homes within two months, according to a local journalist who reported from the eviction sites. Statewide, nearly 50,000 people have been displaced since 2021. Suleman is one of thousands displaced in Assam’s eviction drives, where entire villages — many inhabited by Bengali-speaking Muslims — have been demolished without notice or rehabilitation. The government calls it land reclamation; families call it erasure.
Behind each eviction lies more than lost homes. It is a loss of dignity, citizenship, and security — a reminder that in Assam today, land often matters more than the people who live on it.
Was Nepal’s PM K.P. Oli scared of Gen Z and the emerging young political leaders? In the guise of “regulating” apps, was his real aim to tighten control over the content being posted against him and his government?
When his administration banned 26 social media platforms overnight, it triggered one of the biggest youth uprisings Nepal has ever seen. What began as anger over losing WhatsApp, Instagram, and even LinkedIn quickly turned into a fight against corruption, unemployment, and years of failed governance. This wasn’t just a protest — it was a generational roar demanding change.
Sikkim, despite being rich in rivers, is facing a severe water crisis. In South Sikkim, where rainfall has dropped sharply, villagers like Durga have stepped in to fill the gaps left by failing systems. Once a farmer, he now works as an unpaid “barefoot engineer,” keeping water flowing when infrastructure cannot. This is the untold story of survival in the hills.
Despite Warnings by environment experts, development projects like dams are turning out to be deadly. Destroying mountains, flooded rivers, The flash floods, cloudburst are not just natural, they are man made disasters.
Newsreel Asia’s producer Surabhi Singh travelled to Northeastern state of Sikkim to explore how a dam aggravated the flash floods of October 2023.
Mayalmit Lepcha, general secretary of the Affected Citizens of Teesta—a grassroots environmental group in Sikkim that unites local residents, particularly indigenous Lepcha communities—explains how their deep bond with nature compelled them to resist reckless development in the fragile, young mountains of Sikkim.
How two Muslim minority women sisters faced unfair treatment by Karnataka Police. Behind Bengaluru's giant tech offices lies a darker truth of the crimes against minorities of the state. The two Muslim women, both single mothers, now fight for survival every day. What began as a dispute with their landlady turned into a cascade of abuse, threats, and systemic neglect. Their journey — from reporting chemical attacks and violent assaults to being ignored by the very institutions sworn to protect them — reveals not just personal trauma, but a persistent crisis: the failure of India’s democracy to safeguard its minorities.
Their case is not an exception but a pattern. Karnataka’s conviction rate under the IPC in 2022 stood at 23.9%, well below the national average. Between 2020 and 2023, the state dropped 385 criminal prosecutions, including 182 tied to hate speech, cow vigilantism, and communal violence.
Their story asks a difficult question: in a democracy that promises equal justice, why are minorities still forced to beg for protection?
Narsisus was addicted for 27 years and survived multiple suicide attempts. Today, he runs a modest community rehab centre. With no frills, only a few beds, basic meals and peer support, it offers a fragile but vital lifeline for those who walk through its doors. His journey, from the darkest moments to helping others avoid the same brink, unfolds in a state battling one of India’s deadliest mental health crises: Sikkim.
To investigate if your 9-5 corporate job has labour laws for your safety and well-being, Newsreel Asia producer Jyoti Jangra travels to India’s Silicon Valley—Bengaluru—to find out a quiet crisis unfolding inside corporate cubicles: the crumbling mental health and legal protections of India’s white-collar workforce. This video traces how India’s outdated labour laws—written for factory floors, not tech corridors—have failed to keep pace with a changing workforce. It raises urgent questions: Who benefits from longer hours? Why is unionising still taboo for white-collar workers? And can India truly claim progress if its workforce is quietly burning out? Karnataka, with Bengaluru at its centre, has become the heart of India’s white-collar economy. The state is home to over 16,000 startups and nearly 40% of the country’s IT workforce. Young professionals from across India migrate here in search of opportunity, career growth, and financial stability. But behind the façade of high-rises and tech parks lies a growing unease—marked by mental health concerns, job insecurity, and weakening labour protections.
What do India’s persecuted communities go through behind closed doors?
What happens when you sit across a dinner table and truly listen?
Over the course of 9 powerful episodes, The Dinner Table, a docu-series by Newsreel Asia, brings together stories from communities who have long been silenced, sidelined, or targeted — simply for their identity, faith, or beliefs.
As the host, I travelled across different states, cooked meals with families from Muslim, Kashmiri Pandit, Dalit, Christian tribal, Sikh, Tibetan, indigenous tribal, Kuki-Zo, and Chin communities — and sat down with them to share a meal. What unfolded was not just food on the plate, but raw, unscripted conversations around violence, displacement, discrimination, and the deep pain their communities carry.
Newsreel Asia producer Jyoti Jangra takes us across India – from ghost villages in Uttarakhand to flood-ravaged coasts of Odisha, conflict zones in Manipur and submerged hamlets in Himachal Pradesh – to uncover a silent, growing crisis: distress migration.
“Home Is Not a Place” is a documentary that began as a personal search. When Nepal-based Lhakpa Choedon, an art director and interdisciplinary creative, discovered that her grandmother had been kidnapped and forced into marriage, she began asking questions about her family’s past, about the women around her and about a tradition many would prefer to forget.
Newsreel Asia producer Surabhi Singh has travelled across parts of central India, reporting from remote tribal areas in Chhattisgarh and Odisha. In this video, she shares what she saw on the ground – the continuing struggle of Adivasi communities to protect their land, forest and natural resources.
Kavitha, a mother in Raichur district, doesn’t follow the nutrition charts or growth tracking numbers. What she understands is hunger. The rice from the public distribution shop lasts less than a week. On some nights, there’s nothing but water and silence. For families like hers, malnutrition isn’t just a report—it’s dinner time. In Raichur, all women aged 15–49 are anaemic at a rate of about 57%, combining both pregnant and non‑pregnant groups, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5). Among children under five, 36.8% are stunted, 31.3% are underweight and 21.6% are wasted—figures that point to persistent, long-term nutritional deprivation.
Neeta Oraon lives in Nazira, a small town in Assam’s Sibsagar district. At 27, she has already spent more than a decade working in a tea garden. Her dream of becoming a nurse gave way early to the demands of poverty, debt, and family survival. She now works long hours under the sun, earning 250 rupees a day while caring for her ailing mother. Like Neeta, thousands of women in Assam’s tea gardens remain trapped in cycles of generational hardship and unseen labour.
In Assam’s Morigaon district, Jamal Uddin, a madrasa teacher from Borbori, still carries the trauma of the 1983 Nellie massacre over alleged illegal immigrants. He lost his mother, brother and sister, who were among an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people, mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims, who were killed in a matter of hours. The issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh remains deeply contentious in the state’s politics and society. Successive governments have carried out actions in the name of anti-terror measures, targeting the minority Muslim community and fuelling widespread suspicion against it.
Mohanty Soren and Telenga Hasa, belonging to the Ho and Munda tribes, once lived in a region at the heart of the Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district. Just three years ago, their lives revolved around cultivation, surrounded by dense forest. Now, after being forced to vacate his land, Hasa lives 180 KM apart. Each time he returns to visit Soren in his former village, he is overcome with reflection and sorrow.
Among the tens of thousands of newspapers published in India, one stands truly unique — Balaknama (Children’s Chronicle). Curated by street children, the Delhi-based Balaknama brings powerful stories about underprivileged children and their surroundings in several cities across India. These children have lived the hardships they write about, giving their journalism rare authenticity and depth. Through Balaknama, they now have a platform to voice their issues and challenges.
Sadhu Sundar Singh, a Christian pastor in Odisha’s Balasore district, works with Adivasi communities to curb alcoholism, violence and unsafe drinking practices. However, because he also shares his Christian faith with them, he has received death threats. He insists that belief is a personal choice protected by the Constitution, but Hindu nationalist groups see tribal conversions as a threat to indigenous culture and a push toward a “Western” religion. The resulting tension has triggered violence and unrest.
West Bengal has grappled with a deep-rooted corruption crisis for decades—today, at the heart of it lies the School Service Commission (SSC) teachers’ recruitment scam, which has shattered the hopes of thousands of deserving candidates. In this investigative video, we uncover how teaching jobs were allegedly sold for lakhs of rupees, replacing merit with money in one of the state’s most crucial sectors — education.
After India’s Partition in 1947, Abha arrived with her mother and four daughters—seeking safety, but facing years of uncertainty. Binu and Lilly Roy, who lost their father in childhood and have no memory of their homeland, and Geeta, who was just one year old when she came to India and lost her mother a few years later, all ended up in Cooper’s Camp in West Bengal’s Nadia district. They are among the countless refugees from East Bengal, now Bangladesh, who fled their homes during Partition.
Sheela, a tribal activist from Devgadh Mahila Sangathan, Anandi Foundation, has dedicated her life to fighting for the rights of Adivasi and Dalit communities in Gujarat’s Dahod district. Her work has revealed a grim reality that contrasts sharply with the glowing narratives of Gujarat’s economic success. She takes Newsreel Asia into the heart of this crisis, introducing us to Anita Naik, a mother in Lawaria Village. Anita, like many others, struggles to keep her children alive. One of her children tragically passed away, while her three-year-old son, Rajesh, was born blind and with severe physical deformities—a devastating consequence of the silent malnutrition crisis in the state.
Ajaharuddin, a primary school teacher, witnessed his family's life take a devastating turn when his brother was allegedly attacked by workers affiliated with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party, just a day before the 2023 Panchayat elections in West Bengal. The incident revealed the perilous state of democracy in their village.
Meghna Prakash, a poet and mental health therapist, shares her struggle with a mental health disorder. Recording episodes of her past experiences as she coped, she provides deeply personal insights into her condition. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) affects about seven in 1,000 individuals in India, with women being more commonly afflicted, according to estimates. Worldwide, BPD impacts around 1.4% of the adult population. Meghna's story shows the impact of one of the numerous mental health issues that are frequently misunderstood and neglected in India.
Amal, 27, is a migrant worker from West Bengal’s Purulia district who was forced to leave his village due to a lack of local job opportunities. The recent halt in funding for schemes like MGNREGA in this state has worsened his struggles, pushing him to migrate to different states in search of work. Leaving behind his wife and ailing mother, Amal’s story reflects the harsh realities faced by rural workers dealing with unemployment, migration and the collapse of social safety nets.
Umakant Naik, a resident of one of the many villages tucked away at the foothills of Sijimali Hills, is a firsthand victim of an ongoing tussle between local tribal villagers, a mining giant and the State. Known locally as Tijimali, the Sijimali Hills are home to nearly 50,000 residents, primarily from Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, whose lives are deeply connected to the region’s forest, water and land resources. The mountain streams provide drinking water, while timber and wood offer shelter and fuel. Agriculture and forest resources sustain their daily needs. The “Tij Raja,” a spiritual presence believed to dwell in the hills, serves as a cultural and spiritual anchor for the community. But this harmonious way of life is now at risk.
Prasanna serves as the sarpanch of Satabhaya Gram Panchayat in Odisha. Satabhaya, once a cluster of seven villages, is believed to be the first region affected by climate change in India. Prasanna, who spent over two decades as a migrant worker in Kerala before returning to his village, recounts the heartbreaking story of his coastal home and delves into the relentless struggles of fishermen and farming communities who have lost lives, shelter, land and livelihoods.
Haret Kevat and his wife, Nawal Devi, reside in the Morena district of Madhya Pradesh. Their children have moved to other states, driven by the scarcity of jobs and economic prospects in their home state. Their lives, marked by loneliness, represent the predicament of tens of thousands of elderly parents across the region. In Madhya Pradesh, where 36% of rural residents live below the poverty line, nearly half of the male population migrates for work—almost twice the national average. According to the India Employment Report 2024, 50.9% of these male migrants leave Madhya Pradesh for employment opportunities.
Srimati, a Dalit migrant woman, lives on the streets of Mumbai with her son Shiv Sagar and her daughter after city authorities demolished her home in Jai Bhim Nagar. While she was worried about men leering at her daughter, she learned of a “Reclaim the Night” protest organised by women from a nearby housing society. That protest was in response to the August 2024, rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor in a hospital in Kolkata. Hoping to voice her own family’s safety concerns, she went with other displaced women from her hamlet. But what she experienced at the protest, left Srimati feeling that the middle class extends empathy perhaps only to its own.
Khairunissa, along with her siblings and parents, spent years living in a multi-religious and multicultural apartment in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. When communal tensions and targeted violence against Muslims erupted in the city on February 28, 2002, her family initially felt secure, confident that their neighbours would be able to protect them. But then Khairunissa saw a mob approaching their building. In an instant, their lives and circumstances changed dramatically. More than 22 years later, the lasting impact continues to affect them and hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the state.
To find out whether the floods that Assam faces every year are natural or man-made, Newsreel Asia producer Tej Bahadur Singh travels to Lakhimpur district, one of the worst-hit by floods. He meets a 47-year-old Toramai Pawe, an ASHA worker and daily wage laborer, in Assam’s Pahumara Ahom village, who has lived for decades, raising her children in a modest home built through years of toil. In May 2025, a sudden flood, triggered by water released without warning from the Ranganadi Dam, swept through her village. Her husband, Biren, drowned just steps from their home, leaving Toramai in grief and despair. Their crops, belongings, and vital documents were washed away, joining the losses of countless others in their community. Across Assam, floods this year have affected 6.3 lakh people in 22 districts, claiming 26 lives and damaging 12,610 hectares of cropland.
To find out whether the floods that Assam faces every year are natural or man-made, Newsreel Asia producer Tej Bahadur Singh travels to Lakhimpur district, one of the worst-hit by floods. He meets a 47-year-old Toramai Pawe, an ASHA worker and daily wage laborer, in Assam’s Pahumara Ahom village, who has lived for decades, raising her children in a modest home built through years of toil. In May 2025, a sudden flood, triggered by water released without warning from the Ranganadi Dam, swept through her village. Her husband, Biren, drowned just steps from their home, leaving Toramai in grief and despair. Their crops, belongings, and vital documents were washed away, joining the losses of countless others in their community. Across Assam, floods this year have affected 6.3 lakh people in 22 districts, claiming 26 lives and damaging 12,610 hectares of cropland. For decades, Assam’s floodplains have been both a source of life and loss, with an average of 2.6 million people impacted annually. Districts like Lakhimpur and Dhemaji, downstream of the Ranganadi Dam, face devastating flash floods caused by sudden water releases from NEEPCO’s hydroelectric projects. These man-made disasters, compounded by a lack of early warnings and inadequate research, have turned fertile lands into zones of destruction. Families like Toramai’s lose not only their homes and livelihoods but also their sense of security. As infrastructure controls rivers without regard for communities, the floods in Assam reveal a deeper crisis—one where nature’s cycles are worsened by human hands, leaving millions to rebuild from nothing.