From highlighting the struggles of women from various segments of the society to bringing out women’s journey to empowerment and providing a voice for the oppressed – the journalists and mediapersons, honoured at the sixth edition of the Laadli Media and Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity by Population First and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) here on Tuesday, brought out a plethora of stories and perspectives on gender issues through their work.
The awardees expressed this message in a variety of ways -- documenting the struggle of a rape survivor and the entire process from the immediate aftermath of rape to the days and weeks that follow, reality talk shows dealing with various women’s issues, news features on women’s security issues being the foundation for empowerment and malnutrition incidences among tribal girls were some of the major topics that were recognised.
Jury members
The jury that included members of the media selected 32 winners from the Southern and Eastern Region that comprised awardees from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalya, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland. A.L. Sharada, Director of Population First, said that there was a need to focus on building a larger pool of advertising, media and allied professionals who are trained in gender sensitive reporting and programming. Population First would be organising more workshops, consultations and training programmes this year to take the movement forward, she added.
The winners from the Southern Region include Kiran Kumar who was awarded for his TV news feature on the brutal rape and murder of a widow and the inspiring fight of the women of the village for justice, Swaroopa Potlapally’s investigative story ‘Bhayame Deyyam’ that exposes the insensitivity of the authorities to the plight of the girls in an ashram school, K.A. Beena of Mathrubhoomi.com for her column ‘Akakazhcha’, Jayashree Arunachalam for her feature ‘Cradle of Life’ in Fountain Ink and Vaidehi Ranganathan for her consistent writings on gender issues.
The winners in the Eastern Region include Assam’s Akashitora Dutta of DY365 channel, Odisha’s Bhairab Chandra Brahma of OsiaSambad Daily, Rakhi Ghosh, Sayan Bhattacharya and Siddharth Haobija among others. The Southern and the Eastern region awards event was supported by Rotary Club, Visakha Port City.
Their works bring out a plethora of strories and perspectives on gender issues
