OCTOBER 2, 2002
Huge crowd honors laureates of Second Annual Sarojini Naidu Prize
The Second Sarojini Naidu Prize ceremony was held this morning, at the India Habitat Center, Lodi Road, New Delhi, India.
"Hum hongey kaamyaab, chalengey saath saath, hongey kaamyaab, ek din…."(We shall overcome, we shall overcome, one day). The collective singing symbolized the commitment of the 450 people present at The Sarojini Naidu Prize for Best Reporting on Women in Panchayati Raj, organized by The Hunger Project, India. It was a commitment to ensuring the success of women's leadership in Panchayati Raj.
As a run up to the ceremony The Hunger Project saw a marked increase in the interest shown, both by the Media and the public. This was apparent not only in the increased number of entries but also in the number of people wanting to know who the award winners were and also in the large number of people who attended the award distribution ceremony. Apart from representatives from the media, NGOs, Donor organizations and academicians, Mr. J.M. Lyngdoh(Chief Election Commissioner of India), Mr. Kuldip Nayyar (eminent journalist and ex member of Parliament) and Mrs. Sheila Dixit(Chief Minister of New Delhi) were present in the audience.
The Prize for Best Reporting in English was awarded to Mr. Deepak Tiwari, The Week, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
The Prize for Best Reporting in Hindi was awarded to Ms. Mamta Jaitly, Vividha Feature Service, Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Click here to read the winning articles.
Mrs. Ela Bhatt, Founder & General Secretary, Self Help Women's Association, (SEWA), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, was the Guest of Honor at the ceremony. She shared many first hand stories of the struggle of elected women in Gujarat. She congratulated The Hunger Project for setting up the prize that motivates others to write about the successes of these women.
Gulbasia Bai, Sarpanch of Baihya Tola Panchayat, Sahdol district, Madhya Pradesh described the problems faced by non-literate women representatives like herself. Despite many hardships, she spoke of her achievements in construction of a village pond and she ensured the implementation of the Midday Meal Scheme, disability benefits and pension schemes. She shared her attempts in trying to encourage higher education for girls by converting the existing primary school to a middle school. This is an attempt that she has not been successful in. She ended by saying that if everyone supports her and women like her, they will be able to make a success of their tenure.
Mr. Jaganathan, Jury member said "Journalists are usually negative in their approach so they are inured to good news…. They react less readily to the slow maturing changes that are taking place at the ground level… it is easier to build a steel plant than to bring changes in the attitude of people…. THP is treading this very difficult path…".
Mr. Deepak Tiwari, thanked the THP, the Jury, The Week, his parents and friends for supporting him.
Ms Mamta Jaitly said that she was receiving the award on behalf of all the women and men who are engaged in a struggle in Rajasthan to bring about change. " It is a big struggle for women… that we should recognize rather than glorify …in a state like Rajasthan, elected women are challenging patriarchy and feudalism , this does cause a backlash, especially amongst Dalit women. In order that they succeed they need support structures at various levels and thanked THP and the media for being one such…"
Mrs. Shiela Dixit, Chief Minister of Delhi said,"… it is a fantastic revolution in the most peaceful and unobtrusive manner… it is challenge for any other Country to be able to get such a large number of women elected through democratic processes."
Shri. Javed Akhtar, eminent poet, writer and Guest of Honor at the function, said that rural India has led the way for the first time by reserving seats for women, and, it is now the turn of Parliament to follow their lead.
While leaving the guests were given `sneh sutra' (friendship bands) as a token of connecting the guests with the one million elected representatives.