October 21, 2023: Three members of Youth Ki Awaaz won the Laadli Media & Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2023 for their gender-sensitive reporting on various issues. They will be recognized among a total of 87 awardees from across the country. Laadli Awards are an initiative of Population First, a Mumbai-based social impact organisation that has been working for the past two decades to promote gender sensitivity in media nationwide.
These awards serve as a testament to YKA’s commitment to citizen journalism and the transformative potential of ordinary individuals to effect change.
Sahil Pradhan has been awarded under the category of ‘English’: ‘Blogs’ for their post, In Odisha We Have A Festival To Celebrate Periods But Still Call It ‘Dirty‘. Commenting on their win, Sahil said, “This article came from a conflict born from my identity as an Odia, a part of my identity that I so proudly hold on to and that of the societal stigma that comes from being a part of any community. It often comes as a shocker even for Odia people to know how Raja is associated so deeply with menstruation despite it being a taboo topic. A part of the article talks about my experience with my mother’s periods. Talking about such an intimate personal topic while being the third party giving voice and space to my mother, in my words, was a cathartic experience. My first ever professional writing experience was Youth Ki Awaaz. I haven’t stopped raising my voice about various topics since then. YKA gave me a voice and space where I could explore myself, my strengths, my words, and my interests and gave me a definition of how words can also drive change. From having my first ever YKA article shown in a gender sensitization program in a school to now winning the 2023 Laadli Media Award, YKA has been on a journey with the writer inside me. In this journey of mine, winning a Laadli defines for me that my words have carried their value to a larger strata that is beyond what I can comprehend.”
Prashant Pratyush has been awarded under the category of ‘Hindi: Web-Article’ for his post, Samanta to mahilaon ke thali mein hi nahin hai. On winning an award for this supremely important story, he said, “Agar is lekh se gharon men khaanaa khaane men yaa khaane ke thaali mein thodii bhii samaantaa pahunch saki ho to mujhe lagta hai ki main kaamyaab raha, apne maksad mein. Mahilaayoon ko santulit aur paushtik bhojan mil sake yahi mere lekh ka uddyeshy thha, saath hi saath bhaarteey mahilaayein apni agli peedhi ko anaemic hone se rok sakein. Youth Ki Awaaz jaisa manch mere jeevan mein abhivyakti ke swatantrata ke sahi maayne nibhaata hai. Main bhi iska ek chhota sa hissa kayin saalon se hoon, iski khushi hai mujhe. Bolne aur likhne ki meri yaatra mein yah puraskar ek aatmvishwas milta hai ki kayin vishayon ko jinko mukhyadhaara media apne canvas mein shaamil nahi kar paata hai unpar bhi lekhan kiya jaa sakta hai. Ek nayi raah banaai jaa sakti hai.” (If this article has helped make eating equal, and access to food equal, then I feel that I have succeeded in my aim. I want to advocate for balanced and nutritious food for women so we can prevent the next generation from becoming anaemic. Youth Ki Awaaz is critical to my freedom to express, and I’ve been writing on the platform for a few years now. This award gives me the confidence that the subjects that the mainstream media has ignored can also be written about. This new path can be carved.)
Shikha Sharma has been awarded under the category ‘English: Web-Blogs’ for two of her articles: Violence, Torture, Sexual Assault: What It’s Like To Be Trans In An Indian Prison and In The Push For Digitalization, Indian Women Get Left Behind. The stories can be read here and here. Commenting on her win for the story on digitisation and Indian women, she said, “Over the course of the last couple of years, I have travelled extensively around rural India, and have seen first hand the exclusion girls and women face when it comes to accessing digital technology. Access to digital technology vis a vis girls is a multi pronged beast, with no one solution. It’s as much a social and cultural issue as it an economic one. Writing a story that addresses these many layers, while keeping the story solutions focussed was a challenge.” And on the trans communities’ vulnerabilities in the prison system story, she said, “One of the most challenging aspects was finding data about this story, because there is little government data available about trans people in Indian prisons. The National Crime Records Bureau’s Prison Statistics, for example, still reports data of prisoners in the male-female binary. I wanted the story to be as much about the numbers, as about the experience of the community within the system, and finding the data as well as the people willing to share the stories with me took a lot of time. I experienced while writing this story. YKA restores my faith in the strength of individual voice and it’s power to make things happen.“
A huge congratulations to all our community members for continuing to carry forward the baton of citizen-led media and creating real impact!