The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Laadli awards presented to mediapersons

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 29, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Laadli awards presented to mediapersons

Special Correspondent

Stress on role of media in the fight against gender bias

Photo: K.V.Srinivasan

Honoured: Social Welfare Minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna presenting a UNFPA-Laadli Media award to Seetha Ravi, Editor, ‘Kalki’, in Chennai on Friday. US Consul-General David T. Hopper is in the picture. —

CHENNAI: The journalists and mediapersons honoured at the southern region UNFPA-Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity on Friday all had a similar message: that the girl child is not an unwanted human being. Rather she is a “laadli” – the equivalent of the Tamil term “chellam” – a cherished person in her own right.

The awardees expressed this message in a variety of ways – with news reports on gender discrimination in political appointments, in the coir and fishing industries, and in the mother’s womb; articles celebrating the girl child, women achievers and those fighting for justice for women; television shows breaking the silence on taboo subjects; street theatre providing a voice for oppressed women; and even an advertisement underscoring the joy of daughters.

The 18 winners spanned the gamut of English and regional language media across the southern States, with famous writers rubbing shoulders with young journalists.

Tamil Nadu Social Welfare Minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna, who presented the awards, said that since discrimination in ways such as pre-natal sex selection and female foeticide occur in the literate and prosperous middle classes, education and economic empowerment alone could not solve the problem. A sense of personal freedom and political participation were also essential, she said.

Agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan also emphasised the political dimension. “In the next national elections, the media must insist that every party’s manifesto has a commitment against gender discrimination in the form of female foeticide and undernourished mothers and also brings in 33 per cent representation for women in the State and national legislatures…The commitment in words must be translated to action,” he said.

The United Nations Population Fund’s Ena Singh emphasised the importance of the media in the fight against gender discrimination and abuse.

“Social laws can be implemented successfully only when there is a groundswell of opinion supporting them…The media play a major role in creating this groundswell,” she said.

The UNFPA is supporting a nationwide roll-out of Laadli’s awards, which were introduced in Mumbai last year.

The Laadli campaign itself is an initiative of Population First, an NGO focussing on population and health issues from a women’s rights perspective.

US Consul-General David T. Hopper said his country was collaborating with India on mothers’ health, gender issues in the HIV/AIDS epidemic and legal help and counselling.

The Chennai visa services initiative providing an awareness pamphlet on domestic violence and abuse to all women on dependent visas has been adopted by other visa centres as well, he said.

German Consul-General Roland Herrmann said the German experience in dealing with “infanticide as a means of birth control” had proved changing social contexts was more important than legislation.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu