Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Media Person of the Year

With its focus on honouring women media persons who have made a difference with their writings on subjects such as social development, politics, gender justice, human rights, conflict, health, the environment, and so on, the Chameli Devi Jain Award has gone on to become one of the most prestigious of its kind in the country.

The list of past awardees includes such prominent journalists as Neerja Chowdhury, Sevanti Ninan, Patricia Mukhim, Pamela Philipose, Sunita Narain, Nirupama Subramanian and many others. One of the early recipients of the award was Prabha Dutt, the first Indian woman journalist to cover a war in 1965. Almost two decades later, the prize was won by her daughter, television journalist Barkha Dutt.

The Chameli Devi Jain Award has also recognised women journalists from India’s small towns who often do stellar work, but rarely come into the limelight. In 2004, it was given to a group of women from the Chitrakoot district of the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, who wrote, produced and marketed Khabar Lahariya, a newspaper which began its life in the Bundeli dialect. Yet another notable recipient was Homai Vyarawalla, India’s first woman photo-journalist, who won the award for lifetime achievement in 1998.

At every point in its 42-year trajectory, the Chameli Devi Jain Award has endeavoured to recognise those women journalists who are doing path-breaking work, especially independent journalists who carry on with their mission despite the lack of institutional support. Hence, whether it is Dhanya Rajendran (editor, The News Minute) or Supriya Sharma (executive editor, scroll.in), or independent journalists such as Neha Dixit or Greeshma Kuthar (joint recipient along with Ritika Chopra of The Indian Express for the year 2023), every awardee has been, and continues to be, a torchbearer for her profession.

The process of selection is rigorous. The applications are examined by an independent jury panel and their consensus candidate (there have been joint winners on occasion) wins the award, which, apart from a citation and a trophy, also includes a cash prize. Currently, the award is endowed by the Jain family.