Two districts in Jharkhand that share a border have come under the limelight for a number of reasons. There’s Jamtara, gaining notoriety as a hub for cyber fraudsters. And then there’s Baliapur block in Dhanbad that has emerged as a centre where youngsters are building a future using social media as a tool to attain smashing success and reverse their legacy of extreme poverty.
Almost every house in the villages in Baliapur, around 180 km from Jharkhand’s capital, Ranchi, has an aspiring YouTuber. Over the last five years, these areas have witnessed many social media success stories. Topmost among them is Manoj Dey, whom all YouTube stars in Baliapur look up to in reverence, as he helped many of them to become famous. The 26-year-old has two YouTube channels: Manoj Dey, a technical channel with 2.6 million followers, and Manoj Dey Vlogs, with 7,14,000 subscribers. Apart from this, he has 3.5 lakh followers on Instagram, 1.5 lakh on Facebook (Meta) and 50k on Twitter.
