Women journalists win top PII-ICRC awards

Women journalists ruled the 12th edition of the Press Institute of India (PII)-International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with all the three prizes being bagged by them.

The awards, whose focus this year was on the theme ‘Changing lives through innovation in health and sanitation’, were handed over to the journalists in Chennai on Friday by Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan and Jeremy England, Head of the ICRC Regional Delegation.

While Rakhi Ghosh, an independent journalist working in Odisha, won the first prize for her article "Kanas villagers make water safe through simple interventions", while Sarita Santoshini, based in Guwahati, writing for IndiaSpend, bagged the second prize for "Text messages save lives in a state with highest maternal deaths".

Rakhi’s story that brought to light how simple interventions by residents of a coastal village in Odisha had made water from ponds and tube-wells safe for consumption appeared on the Village Square website.

The third winner in the same category, Maitri Porecha, was awarded for her article ‘Mobile phones hand-hold mothers through pregnancy’, published in Daily News and Analysis (DNA).

The first, second and third place winners received Rs 1 lakh, Rs 70,000 and Rs 40,000, respectively. Special awardees received Rs 20,000, a press release from the PII said.

In the best photograph category, Neeraj Gautam, a senior photojournalist with Rajasthan Patrika whose picture captured innovative ways of reusing and recycling water by a water-starved village in Rajasthan, won the first prize.

Special awards were presented in the best article category to Tabassum Barnagarwala, (Indian Express, Mumbai), Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed (Frontline, Bengaluru) and Rakhee Roytalukdar (Grassroots, Jaipur) and in the best photograph category to Indranil Mukherjee (AFP, Mumbai).