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The
Anupama Jayaraman Memorial Award was instituted
by the Jayaraman family in memory of the young
and promising Bangalore-based journalist with
a special interest in human rights and social
justice, who passed away in January 2006. The
award is one of several efforts undertaken by
her family to keep her concerns and ideas alive.
It is meant to encourage and honour young women
journalists who, like her, believe in meaningful
journalism and have the courage and determination
to write on issues relating to human rights and
social justice. The award includes a citation
and a cheque for Rs. 15,000.
The
Network of Women in Media, Bangalore, collaborated
with her family in setting up and operationalising
the new, national media award, the first to focus
on the work of young women in the early years
of their careers as journalists. The NWMB will
continue to cooperate with the Jayaraman family
in sustaining the award, which will be presented
at the NWMI's annual meetings held in different
parts of the country every year.The 2007 award
called for nominations/entries from female print
journalists living anywhere in India and writing
in English.
Awards for journalism in other languages may be
Smita Agarwal the first recipient introduced in
the future. The theme of the Award for this of
Anupama Jayaraman Award inaugural year was ‘Human
Rights and Gender Issues.’
Pune-based
Smita Aggarwal was selected as the first winner
of the award from among a number of nominations
that came in from across the country. The winner
was selected by a five-member jury comprising
Mr R Shankar, Editor, The New Indian Express;
Ms Poornima Rao, Editor, Udayavani; Ms Shakuntala
Narasimhan, columnist, consumer activist and musician;
Mr Suresh Menon, noted sports writer and columnist;
and Ms Ranita Hirji, Dean of Studies, COMMITS.
Smita,
who has reported on women in the CRPF in Kashmir,
found favour with the jury because of the "quality
of inputs that have obviously gone into some of
the stories she has submitted." According
to one jury member, she had "gone that extra
distance to put herself in the shoes of the women
who serve under difficult conditions but have
not received adequate media coverage."
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