ACJ announces list of winners for journalism awards

Shyamlal Yadav and Sandeep Singh of The Indian Express have won the Award for Investigative Journalism instituted by the Asian College of Journalism for their series on elected representatives and relatives of government officials rushing to buy land in Ayodhya hoping to make hefty gains after the Supreme Court verdict.

Prema Sridevi and Himanshu Kala won the K P Narayana Kumar Memorial Award for Social Impact Journalism at the school’s annual award ceremony and convocation of the Class of 2022.

Their winning entry, ‘Manual scavengers: Shit hits our head in manholes, our co-workers have died | Govt says 'no deaths', is an account of the lives and deaths of sanitation workers in Delhi, focusing on the human condition -- the documentary feature film was produced by The Probe.

The final jury comprising Ayaz Memon (Chairperson), Swapna Sundar and Harsha Subramaniam chose the winners from shortlisted entries in each category. Both awards comprise trophies and citations.

Prize money for the Investigative Journalism Award is Rs 2 lakh and the Social Impact Award winner receives Rs 1 lakh. The winners were honoured at an event in Chennai on May 3.

The jury also selected an investigative series into the deaths due to covid by Rukmini S published in Scroll, The Hindu and India Spend, The Foreigner by Makepeace Sithlou and Prakash Bhuyan published in Fifty-Two.

On Social Impact Journalism, it chose Why India doesn’t want its student talking about caste’ by Omkar Khandekar in The Morning Context, and The common deadly disease that you haven’t heard of’ by Aradhna Wal in Scroll, and Stamina – Women, sport and citizenship by Sohini Chattopadhyay published by Fifty-Two.

The ACJ Journalism Awards Committee received 130 entries in the investigative journalism category and 177 entries in the social impact journalism category. The entries came in 11 languages from over 55 news organisations and publications as well as independent/freelance journalists from across India for the 2021 edition of the awards.