Population First awards gender sensitive media

Mumbai, Mar 6 (UNI) Advertising, news media professionals and filmmakers were felicitated by NGO 'Population First' today with the 'Laadli Media awards' for their contribution in the positive portrayal of the girl child/woman in media.

The NGO working on health and population issues, instituted the awards to promote gender sensitivity in the media and to encourage them to write their views and opinions on the girl child and related issues.

The awards were presented by Keshub Mahindra, Laadli Goodwill Ambassador, Kiron Kher and United Nations Population fund (UNFPA) goodwill ambassador Lara Dutta.

The awardees include advertising agencies Ogilvy and Mather, 'Saatchi and Saatchi', 'Leo Burnett' and 'Lowe'; 'The Week' (News Magazine), Priya Jadhav (Doordarshan), Atul Kulkarni (Dainik Lokmat) Shyamlal Yadav, Kalpana Sharma (The Hindu), Mamta Kandpal (Zee News) and special mention awards for feature films 'Mathrubhoomi' and 'Dor'.

The jury comprised on eminent media personalities like Arnab Goswami, Ena Singh, Govind Nihalani, Kiron Kher, Mohammed Khan, Ramesh Narayan, Sai Paranjpe, Sathya Saran, Shobhaa De and Suneeta Rao.

Addressing the media Population First Executive Trustee S V Sista said ''The Laadli Media awards have been instituted as a part of the media advocacy efforts being carried out under the Laadli media campaign. The objective of the awards is to felicitate, acknowledge, recognise and encourage media journalists and advertising professionals to keep working on gender issues and to draw attention of the public to their positive efforts. It also acts as a platform for showcasing the efforts of a socially responsible media.'' Population First also announced Kiron Kher has been roped in as Laadli's Goodwill ambassador. Dr A L Sharada Programming Director said ''Kiron has been associated with good responsible cinema and strong women oriented roles. We saw in her a vociferous support for Laadli and hope to consolidate our communication campaign with her presence and image.'' A curtain raiser audio-visual presented the rationale of the awards to the audience. As part of the ceremony, actor and former Miss Universe Lara Dutta launched 'Der Na Ho Jayee' a short film on sex selection.

Laadli spokesperson Suneeta Rao along with calligraphy artist Achyut Palav presented a 'jugalbandi' on the Laadli song followed by another performance by Anuradha Pal and painter-poet Ila Dev Pal.

Other performance included an Odissi ballet by danseuse Dasha Mashruwala's troupe of 15 students.

UNI