PARI Wins Prem Bhatia Journalism Award

The People’s Archive of Rural India has won the Prem Bhatia Award for outstanding journalism, 2020. The award, the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust notes, recognises PARI’s “extensive field reports, including climate change effects and the impact of the pandemic on rural India” and is being given to “PARI collectively for its army of field reporters, volunteers and its dedicated team…” 

PARI’s landmark and ongoing climate change series, contains, so far, stories from multiple regions across 11 states, told in the voices of people and communities – of climate change as it unfolds and is observed and experienced, in big and imperceptible ways, every day by everyday people. 

PARI’s unparalleled coverage of the pandemic and the lockdown includes (so far) more than 100 stories and vital documents from over 30 regions across 20 states and union territories. They're about migrant labourers, of course, but also recognise and cover the impact of the lockdown on the many delicately interwoven economies of rural India – of farmers, boatmen, labourers urban and rural, sugarcane-cutters, weavers, toy-makers, other artisans and craftspeople, f sanitation workers, displaced labourers, cancer patients from rural areas waiting on the footpaths outside Mumbai's major hospitals, nomadic pastoralists, daily wagers, folk artists, fisherfolk, barbers, brick kiln workers, harmonium repairers, and Dalits and Adivasis in various occupations... 

The Prem Bhatia awards were instituted in 1995 in memory of eminent journalist Prem Bhatia (1911-1995), to propagate the values that he stood for: objective reporting, fearless pursuit of the truth and a commitment to improving the standards of journalism in India. 

The award this year for reporting on political issues was given to Dipankar Ghose of the Indian Express. Our congratulations to him.

This is the 24th award won by PARI since we launched in December 2014. The full list so far:

People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI):  Awards received from 2015 to 2020              

24. Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust, New Delhi, 2020
The Pari Team won the Prem Bhatia Award for journalism on Environment and Development issues “for its extensive field reports, including climate change effects and the impact of the pandemic on rural India.”

23. Public Relation Council of India, Bengaluru, 2020
PARI Fellow M. Palani Kumar won the Communicator of the Year – Best Story of the Year award for Tamil Nadu’s seaweed harvesters in rough seas. This is a photo story about an unusual activity of the fisherwomen of Bharathinagar in Tamil Nadu, which keeps them more in the water than on boats. And how climate change and overexploitation of marine resources are eroding their livelihoods.

22. Public Relations Council of India, Bengaluru, 2020 
PARI Reporter Jyoti Shinoli won the Communicator of the Year – Best Content of the Year award for her story Pardhi school bull-dozed by Prosperity Highway. The story is about a school in Amravati district, Maharashtra, started by a Phanse Pardhi teacher for kids from his long-stigmatised and impoverished community, which was demolished on June 6, 2019, leaving them anxious and uncertain.

21. Press Institute of India  and the International Committee of the Red Cross, New Delhi, 2019
PARI Fellow Urvashi Sarkar won the first prize in the Best Article category for her article ‘Our houses are vanishing. Nobody cares’. The story tracks climate-related displacement and looks at the migration of people between Sagar and Ghoramara Islands in West Bengal, and the vanishing of islands, homes and livelihoods.

20. Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2019 (October 17-24)
PARI Fellow Yashaswini Raghunandan’s film was selected for the INDIA GOLD category at the festival, for her  film That Cloud Never Left.

19. FILAF film festival, Perpignan, France: Festival International du Livre d'Art et du Film, 2019
PARI Fellow Yashaswini Raghunandan won the GOLD FILAF at the FILAF film festival in France (Festival International du Livre d'Art et du Film) for her film That Cloud Never Left.

18. Tutti I Premi Del Pesaro Film Fest, Pesaro, Italy 2019
PARI Fellow Yashaswini Raghunandan received a special mention for the film That Cloud Never Left at this festival in Pesaro, Italy.

17. Mumbai Press Club, 2019
PARI Reporter Jyoti Shinoli won the Red Ink Award in the Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality category for her story Collecting 6,000 leaves a day for a living, published on PARI on May 3, 2018.

16. Indian Express Group, New Delhi, 2019
PARI Fellow Parth M. N. won the Ramnath Goenka award (in the Uncovering India Invisible category) for his series of stories on Marathwada published on PARI.

15. The Statesman, Kolkata, 2018
PARI Author Puja Awasthi won the Statesman Prize for Rural Reporting for two stories published on PARI on July 5 and  August 3, 2017: Beaten but unbowed – Sunanda Sahoo's silent struggle and Drums and dreams beyond pickle and papad

14. Population First, New Delhi, 2018
PARI Fellow Urvashi Sarkar received the Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity, 2017, in the Features category for her story Widowed by tigers, abandoned by the state, published on PARI on October 12, 2017.

13. European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, 2018
PARI Fellow Parth M. N. received the Lorenzo Natali Media Prize for the story Cutting cane for 2000 hours published on PARI on February 6, 2018.

12. South Asian Short Film Festival, Kolkata, 2018
15 of PARI’s video films were selected for SASFF-2018: 13 films in the Competition Documentary category and 2 in the Official Panorama category. (The films are listed below.)

11. Parigi Hanumantha Rao Foundation, Andhra Pradesh, 2018
PARI Fellow Rahul M. received the Parigi Hanumantha Rao journalism award for 2017-2018, for his stories published on PARI.

10. Vasant Vyakhyanmala, Pune, Maharashtra, 2018
The first Justice M.G. Ranade Award (inaugural year), recognising the unique nature of the new journalism “initiative called the People’s Archive of Rural India.”

9. Sri Murugamath, Vhitradurga, Karnataka, 2017
The Basavashree Award for “service rendered through the People’s Archive of Rural India to the rural folk in the way of a Journalism Movement.”

8. Appan Menon Memorial Committee, New Delhi, 2017
Appan Menon Memorial Award for “the work being done by the People’s Archive of Rural India to document life in rural India.”

7. C-Shell Media and Literary Awards, Dubai, 2017
C-Shell Journalism Prize, for “extraordinary and in-depth reporting of rural India and the unique achievement that is PARI.”

6. Kesari Mahratta Trust and Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune, 2017
The Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak award for Excellence in Journalism to P. Sainath/PARI (recognising his launch of PARI)

5. Anant Bhalerao Smriti Foundation, Aurangabad, 2016
The Anant Bhalerao Smriti Puraskar for “incisive reporting of rural India, the People’s Archive of Rural India and its approach to boosting journalism in Indian languages.”

4. Krantisinh Nana Patil Foundation, Sangli,  Maharashtra, 2016
Krantisinh Nana Patil Memorial Award for P. Sainath (recognising, also, the importance of PARI).

3. National Film Awards, Government of India, New Delgi, 2016
PARI Fellows Nidhi Kamath and Keya Vaswani received the Silver Lotus (Rajat Kamal) for the Best Promotional Film at the 63rd National Film Awards 2016 for their film Weaves of Maheshwar, published on PARI on May 2, 2016

2. Praful Bidwai Memorial Committee, New Delhi, 2016
The first Praful Bidwai Memorial Prize for “reportage and commentary on agrarian distress and the source of information and inspiration that is PARI.”

1. Population First, Mumbai, 2015
PARI Fellow Purusottam Thakur received the Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity 2014-15 in the Best Investigative Story category for the story Making history, heading for a hundred, published on PARI on March 20, 2015.

Special Mention: In April 2020, the United States Library of Congress informed us that they had selected the PARI website for inclusion in their web archives: "We consider your website to be an important part of this collection and the historical record." 

South Asian Short Film Festival, March 2018: List of PARI videos/films

Competition: Documentary

1. Archana Phadke/ Captain Elder Brother’ and the Whirlwind Army/ India/ Marathi/ 06M
2. Shreya Katyayini/ Tussar: The Crumbling Cocoon/ India/ Hindi/ 12M
3. Sinchita Maji/ Heavy Lifting in the Hills/ India/ Marathi/ 09M
4. Sayantoni Palchoudhuri/ Jahangir's Story/ India/ Hindi/ 08M
5. Sayantoni Pachoudhuri/ Vote for Boat/ India/ Hindi/ 08M
6. Stanzin Saldon/ The Loom is My Love, My Legacy/ India/ Ladakhi/ 09M
7. Sinchita Maji/ Basudeb Baul/ India/ Bengali/ 12M
8. Ankan Roy/ Bahurupi: A Family of Many Faces/ India/ Bengali/ 10M
9. Shreya Katyayini/ When the Queen Strikes/ India/ Hindi/ 15M
10. Anubha Bhonsle & Others/ Ima Keithel: Every Day is Women’s Day/ India/ Manipuri/ 15M
11.Aparna Karthikeyan/ The Dance of the False Legged Horse/ India/ Tamil/ 18M
12. V. Sasikumar/ Mending Boats with Music/ India/ Malayalam/ 15M
13. Purusottam Thakur/ The Fading Weaves of Duajhar/ India/ Odiya/ 16M 

 Official Selection: Panorama – Documentary

14. Sinchita Maji/ Threadbare in Santipur/ India/ Bengali/ 13M
15.  Sinchita Maji/ Dhol on Wheels/ India/ Bengali/ 06M

South Asian Short Film Festival, March 2019: List of PARI videos/films

Competition: Documentary 

1. Sinchita Maji/ Ganpati Yadav's Gripping Life Cycle/ India/ Marathi/ 17M
2. Ankan Roy & Others / Possessed by His Art, a Bahurupi Transforms/  India/ Bengali /05M
3. Vishaka George & Others / I Feel So Happy to See the Paddy Growing/ India/ Malayalam/05M
4. Anubha Bhonsle & Others / Into The Chakshangs Of Imphal/ India/ Manipuri, Meitei/05M
5. Subuhi Jiwani/ Farming Doesn't Give Us Our Sustenance/ India/ Hindi/04M