C Vanaja, Hyderabad-based freelancer and founder member of the Network of Women in Media, India, won the prestigious Ramanth Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism in the category ‘Uncovering India Invisible’ for her story "Dandakaranyamlo Janatana Sarkar (Parallel Government in Dandakaranya)" a Telugu feature published as cover story in the Sunday supplement of Andhra Jyothi on 10 April 2005.

It was after reading the English translation of this story that CNN-IBN asked Vanaja to share some of her footage which is part of her larger documentary project. In March-April 2005 Vanaja, along with cameraperson Dindinath travelled on foot for more than 100 kms in the jungles of Chattisgarh, interacting with guerillas and adivasis, in an attempt to go beyond the "violence-counter-violence-mine-blasts reporting", as she says. Besides the regular stuff of spending time with armed guerillas, she was able to gather valuable information on the development activities in those tribal areas that have been neglected for ages: digging farm ponds and irrigation tanks, fishing, forming co-operatives, teaching stable agriculture and horticulture, developing health and educational infrastructure.

Vanaja was awarded the prize by the Prime Minister at a glittering function in New Delhi on 12 April. The award – the trademark pen nib of the Indian Express Group, also carries a cash award of one lakh rupees.

Incidentally, there are seven other women award winners out of a total of 16 awardees. They are Barkha Dutt, Sutapa Deb, Swati Thyagarajan, Shikha Trivedy, Ratna Bharali Talukdar, Menaka Doshi and Somini Sengupta.

For details on the Ramanth Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards: http://www.expressindia.com/rngf/awards/index.html

For more details on Vanaja: http://vanajac.blogspot.com/

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