2021 Roundup: Indian Women Journalists Who Made Headlines With Their Work

Women Journalists India 2021: Journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year for their fight for freedom of expression and promoting peace through their work. They brought the focus on journalists who are surviving and telling truths from the street to the ones sitting in power.

The year went by in turmoil in India and it was the time when a section of Indian media was applauded for their coverage of the crisis caused by the pandemic such as deaths, migrant issues, vaccine shortage, crime against women and many such issues. They were also criticised for doing convenient journalism and hounding individuals already in distress.

We saw many women reporters take the lead to tell stories from the ground, whether it be Hathras rape case reportage, where a Dalit girl was raped by upper caste men and then cremated without the permission of her parents, or communal violence in Tripura. These women journalists did not fear the State and simply put forward the truth.

Suggested Reading: Withstanding Terror, Women Journalists Report From Ground Zero In Afghanistan

Here Are some such women journalists who won applauses in 2021 for their work in the field of journalism:

Samriddhi K Sakunia and Swarna Jha

The journalist duo from HW News were arrested by the Tripura police for reporting about vandalism at Tripura Mosque. The police alleged that they reported fake news which spread communal disharmony and tension in the region and at Amravati in Maharashtra. They were arrested on November 15 this year and reportedly harassed. But both of them and their news media organisation stood strong. The Supreme Court later dismissed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act charge against them.

Meena Devi

Khabar Lahariya, India's only newspaper run by Dalit women was followed by the debut directors Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh in the documentary film Writing With Fire. It won the audience award in the World Cinema Documentary category of the Sundance Film Festival 2021. The film features a group of Dalit women, led by their chief reporter Meera Devi as they go digital from the print version to remain afloat in the digital age of journalism.

Ismat Ara

Ismat Ara won the Laadli Award in the web investigative story category for her reportage on the Hathras gangrape case. She wrote an article on the medico-legal examination of the deceased woman. Through her report, she questioned the UP Police on their claim that no gangrape had taken place. She has done her master's in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia. In the year 2017, she joined The Hindu newspaper and then went on to write for various publications like Newslaundry, BBC Hindi, Firstpost and now The Wire.

Mariyam Alavi

She reports for NDTV, a news media organisation. In November this year, Mariyam Alavi along with Sreenivasan Jain of the same organisation won the Award for Excellence in Journalism by the International Press Institute of India. They won it for their reportage on exposing the "untruthfulness of cases of forcible conversion" which were registered against men from the Muslim community who married women from the Hindu community in Uttar Pradesh. Recently, Alavi was involved in a one-of-its-kind report that noted a surge in cases against critics of the central government. According to USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, Alavi is from Kerala but grew up in Saudi Arabia.

Srishti Jatav

She is a journalist working with Dalit Times and was arrested by the Delhi Police in August this year for her coverage of the demolition of the Dhobi Ghat slum. She was arrested when she reached Batla House in Jamia Nagar to report on the displacement of people living there due to the demolition by the Delhi Development Authority, which was approved by the National Green Tribunal judgement. 'Stand with Srishti Jatav' trended on social media after her arrest.

Nayanima Basu

The Print's Diplomacy Editor Nayanima Basu was one of the few woman journalists in Kabul when the Taliban took over and its democratically elected president Ashraf Ghani fled the country. Basu was scheduled to return on August 16 morning when her flight got cancelled. Later, she had to return on an Indian Air Force plane. In an interview with SheThePeople, Basu spoke about the safety concerns of Afghan women and the importance of women journalists reporting on the crisis. Read more here. A strategic affairs reporter, Basu through the year kept a keen eye on diplomatic developments crucial to India.

Navamy Sudhish

From the Kollam Bureau of The Hindu news publication, Navamy Sudesh was awarded the Laadli Media award under the print feature category for the news article 'Don't Set Us Straight' that was published in the Sunday Magazine section of the newspaper. Her article titled 'Shock Therapy, Exorcism, Psychotropic Drugs: Behind 'Conversion Therapy' For Queers' talked about the death of Anjana Harish and the larger issue of conversion therapy practiced in India and other countries, which the UN in its report had urged the government to ban.

Soma Basu

Another award-winning reporter from The Hindu was Soma Basu from the Madhurai Bureau of the Hindu Magazine got recognised for reporting under the category 'Gender Sensitivity In The Southern Region'. Basu reported on domestic abuse survivors being trapped with their abusers during the pandemic due to COVID-19. The article was titled 'A Parallel Pandemic As Domestic Abuse Victims Trapped With Their Abusers.' Basu was also at the forefront of reporting on the momentous Keeladi excavation in Tamil Nadu that dates back to the ancient Sangam period.

Masrat Zahra

In the year 2020, Zahra won the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award. She is a photojournalist from Kashmir, whose camera lenses had captured the violence and grief in the valley. She was applauded for telling the stories of the women of Kashmir. On July 25, Zahra tweeted that her parents were assaulted in Batamaloo and that her father's ID card was allegedly taken by the police. In the past, she was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for allegedly "frequently" uploading anti-national posts with criminal intention." She has been vocal about facing intimidation for speaking truth to power.

Jyoti Yadav and Heena Fatima

Fatima and Yadav won the Laadli Media awards under the gender sensitivity category. Yadav won it for her article on rape culture in India and Fatima for how online education is inaccessible for women. This is the second year in a row that Yadav had won the award. Her story was titled 'Locker Room Boys To IT Cell Men: India's Rape Culture Grows With Shame or Consequences.'

Yadav was among the ground reporters this year who brought heart-rending stories from the pandemic in India to the fore. Her report on Kalyani Agrahari, a young and pregnant panchayat election officer who died from the virus after allegedly being forced into duty, was significant in highlighting the lack of COVID-19 protocol enforcement even during the deadly second wave.