Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediapersons

The Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediaperson is an Indian journalism award named after Chameli Devi Jain, an Indian independence activist who became the first Jain woman to go to prison during India's independence struggle. The award was instituted in 1980 by The Media Foundation and is given to women in the field of journalism. According to Business Standard, the award is "perhaps India's longest running media award for women".[1]

Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediaperson
Awarded for	Journalism award in India for women
Sponsored by	The Media Foundation
First awarded	1981
Last awarded	2019
Highlights
Total awarded	53
First winner	Neerja Chowdhury
Last winner	Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Rohini Mohan

The Media Foundation was founded in 1979 by B. G. Verghese, Lakshmi Chand Jain, Prabhash Joshi, Ajit Bhattacharjea and N. S. Jagannathan. The award was instituted in 1980 by Verghese and the family of Chameli Devi.[2] The criteria for selection include social concern, dedication, courage and compassion in the individual's work. Journalists in print, digital and broadcast are eligible including photographers, cartoonists and newspaper designers; the entries are judged by an independent jury. Preferences are given to rural or small-town journalists and journalists in regional Indian languages.[3]

Neerja Chowdhury won the inaugural award in 1981. In 2015, Supriya Sharma of Scroll.in became the first online journalist to receive the award.[4] The most recent award was given to Arfa Khanum Sherwani of The Wire and Rohini Mohan, an independent journalist.[5][6]

Recipients

Homai Vyarawalla (right), winner of the 1998 Chameli Devi Jain Award, receiving the Padma Vibhushan from the President of India in 2011.

Pushpa Girimaji, winner of the 1991 Chameli Devi Jain Award

Sucheta Dalal (right), winner of the 1992 Chameli Devi Jain Award, receiving the Padma Shri from the President of India in 2006.

Year	Recipient(s)	Associated media house(s)/notes	Ref.
1981	Neerja Chowdhury	The Statesman The Indian Express	[7]
1982	Prabha Dutt Sevanti Ninan	–	[8]
1983	Shahnaz Anklesaria Aiyar Sakuntala Narasimhan	–	[9]
1984	Sheela Barse	–	[8]
1985	Madhu Purnima Kishwar	–	[10]
1986	Kalpana Sharma	Himmat The Indian Express The Times of India	[11]
1987	No winner	–	[12]
1988	Tavleen Singh	India Today The Indian Express	[13]
1989	Chitra Subramaniam	India Today	[8]
1990	Usha Rai	–	[14]
1991	Pushpa Girimaji Mediastorm Collective[lower-alpha 1]	–	[15]
1992	Sucheta Dalal Teesta Setalvad	The Times of India The Indian Express	[16]
1993	Sheela Bhatt Alka Raghuvanshi Manimala	India Today	[17]
1994	Shubha Singh	The Telegraph The Pioneer The Khaleej Times	[18]
1995	Patricia Mukhim	Shillong Times	[19]
1996	Annam Suresh Rehana Hakim	–	[20]
1997	Anita Pratap	CNN TIME magazine	[21]
1998	Homai Vyarawalla	–	[22]
1999	Barkha Dutt Pamela Philipose Vasavi Kiro	NDTV The Times of India Prabhat Khabar	[23] [24] [25]
2000	Kunjal Paanje Kutchji	Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan	[26]
2001	Bano Haralu	Eastern Mirror	[27]
2002	Shikha Trivedi	–	[24]
2003	Sonu Jain Chitrakoot Rural Women's Collective	The Indian Express Khabar Lahariya	[28] [29]
2004	Sunita Narain	Down to Earth magazine	[30]
2005	Ratna Bharali Talukdar	–	[31]
2006	Nilanjana Bose Sreerekha B	CNN-IBN Vanitha	[7]
2007	Rupashree Nanda	CNN-IBN	[32]
2008	Nirupama Subramanian Vinita Deshmukh	The Hindu	[21]
2009	Monalisa Changkija Shoma Chaudhury	Nagaland Page Tehelka	[33]
2010	Shahina K. K.	Open Magazine	[34]
2011	Tusha Mittal	Tehelka	[35]
2012	Alka Dhupkar	IBN Lokmat	[36]
2013	Anubha Bhonsle	CNN-News18	[37]
2014	Supriya Sharma	Scroll.in	[38]
2015	Priyanka Kakodkar Raksha Kumar	The Times of India	[39]
2016	Neha Dixit	–	[40]
2017	Uma Sudhir	NDTV	[41]
2018	Priyanka Dubey	BBC	[42]
2019	Arfa Khanum Sherwani Rohini Mohan	The Wire –	[6]

Notes

1. Shohini Ghosh, Ranjani Mazumdar, Sabina Kidwai, Shikha Jhingan, Sabeena Gadihoke and Charu Gargi

See also

• Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards

References

1. "BBC journalist Priyanka Dubey gets Chameli Devi Jain Award". Business Standard. 7 March 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
2. "The Chameli Devi Jain Award 2016–17". The Hoot. 18 December 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
3. "Media Foundation invites nominations for Chameli Devi Award for women journalists". United News of India. 14 January 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
4. "Scroll.in's Supriya Sharma wins prestigious Chameli Devi Jain award". Scroll.in. 16 March 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
5. "Rohini Mohan and Arfa Khanum Sherwani win the Chameli Devi Jain Award for outstanding woman journalists". Newslaundry. 13 March 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
6. "Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Rohini Mohan Win Chameli Devi Jain Award for Women Journalists". The Wire. 13 March 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
7. "Chameli Devi Award for CNN-IBN journo". News18. 24 March 2007. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
8. Nair, Supriya (30 May 2012). "Breaking new ground". Mint. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
9. Sharma, Kalpana (7 July 2015). "Shahnaz believed what she wrote could make a difference". Rediff.com. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
10. "Prof. Madhu Purnima Kishwar" (PDF). Developing Countries Research Centre. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
11. "Kalpana Sharma". Penguin Books. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
12. Singh, Shubha; Padgaonkar, Latika (2012). Making News, Breaking News, Her Own Way. Stories by winners of the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediapersons. Tranquebar. p. 6. ISBN 9789381626498.
13. Mass Media in India. Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. 1990. p. 24.
14. Ravindranath, Sushila (29 April 2012). "Does a journalists gender matter". The Financial Express. Archived from the original on 3 July 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
15. Das, Priyanka (11 April 2017). "An opaque state is asking for public transparency". Pune Mirror. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
16. "Sucheta Dalal: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
17. Bhatt, Sheela (29 May 2019). "Sheela Bhatt on the Indian media". Rediff. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
18. Daftuar, Swati (2 June 2012). "First look". The Hindu. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
19. Oinam, G.S. "Patricia Mukhim". e-pao.net. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
20. Singh, Shubha; Padgaonkar, Latika (2012). Making News, Breaking News, Her Own Way: Stories by Winners of the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediapersons. Westland. p. 54. ISBN 9789381626498.
21. Pal, Deepanjana (28 April 2012). "I Am A Journalist, Full Stop". Newslaundry. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
22. Pillai, Meena T. (27 November 2014). "The way of the news, in her words". The Hindu. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
23. "The Hindu : Barkha Dutt gets award". The Hindu. Press Trust of India. 4 April 2000. Retrieved 9 March 2019.CS1 maint: others (link)
24. "In Her Words". Eastern Mirror. 14 June 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
25. "Pamela Philipose to be Ombudsman of The Wire, Serve as Interface With Readers". The Wire. 7 July 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
26. Virmani, Shabnam (April 2001). "India Together: Kutch Radio program receives an award". India Together. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
27. "Bano Haralu honoured for contributions in journalism, environmental conservation". Eastern Mirror. 23 October 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
28. Subburaj, VVK (2007). Concise General Knowledge 2007. Sura Books. p. 137. ISBN 9788172540746.
29. Kohli, Namita (22 July 2007). "Newshounds of the hinterland". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
30. "Sunita Narain presented Chameli Devi Jain Award". Zee News. 30 March 2005. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
31. "Sunita Narain presented Chameli Devi Jain Award". Zee News. 30 March 2005. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
32. "CNN-IBN's Rupashree Nanda wins Chameli Devi Award". CNN-News18. 25 March 2008. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
33. "Shoma, Monalisa to share Chameli Devi award". The Hindu. 10 March 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
34. "Shahina of Open magazine conferred Chameli Devi award". Hindustan Times. Press Trust of India. 15 March 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2019.CS1 maint: others (link)
35. "Chameli Devi award for Tusha Mittal". The Hindu. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
36. "Chameli winner". The Hoot. 18 March 2013. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
37. "Section of mainstream media "biased" in covering poll stories". Business Standard. 20 March 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
38. Scroll Staff (16 March 2015). "Scroll.in's Supriya Sharma wins prestigious Chameli Devi Jain award". Scroll.in. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
39. "Chameli Devi Jain award winners named". Business Standard. 15 March 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
40. "Neha Dixit Wins Chameli Devi Award for Outstanding Woman Journalist for 2016". The Wire. 1 March 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
41. Isaac, Anna (5 March 2018). "28 years in the news: NDTV's Uma Sudhir wins Chameli Devi Jain award 2017". The News Minute. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
42. "BBC journalist gets Chameli Devi award". The Indian Express. 8 March 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2019.

Bibliography

• Singh, Shubha; Padgaonkar, Latika (2012). Making News, Breaking News, Her Own Way. Stories by winners of the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediapersons. Tranquebar. ISBN 9789381626498.