Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediapersons

Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Mediaperson
Awarded forJournalism award in India for women
Sponsored byThe Media Foundation
First awarded1981
Last awarded2024
Highlights
Total awarded54
First winnerNeerja Chowdhury
Last winnerRitika Chopra, Greeshma Kuthar

The Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman 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.[1] 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".[2]

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.[3] 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.[4]

Neerja Chowdhury won the inaugural award in 1981. In 2015, Supriya Sharma of Scroll.in became the first online journalist to receive the award.[5]

  1. ^ "Chameli Devi Jain". Archived from the original on 6 February 2023. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
  2. ^ "BBC journalist Priyanka Dubey gets Chameli Devi Jain Award". Business Standard. 7 March 2019. Archived from the original on 7 March 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  3. ^ "The Chameli Devi Jain Award 2016–17". The Hoot. 18 December 2016. Archived from the original on 24 February 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  4. ^ "Media Foundation invites nominations for Chameli Devi Award for women journalists". United News of India. 14 January 2019. Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  5. ^ "Scroll.in's Supriya Sharma wins prestigious Chameli Devi Jain award". Scroll.in. 16 March 2015. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2019.