The Free Press Journal was back with its fourth edition of the ‘Angels of Mumbai’ initiative in 2022, but with a twist. This time, it was a year-long programme. Like every year, prominent Mumbaikars nominated someone whose small act has made a big difference to the city. The focus was on gratitude for the invisible and seemingly insignificant actions that sustain the world.
Throughout the year, a list of 40 ‘Angels of Mumbai’ was published with a detailed description of the work they have carried out. From hunger alleviation to spreading awareness about menstrual hygiene to helping stray animals, the objective was to celebrate the efforts of Mumbaikars and encourage them to achieve bigger heights.
The initiative culminated with the jury, comprising four distinguished panellists, selecting 10 special winners. The jury members consisted of Deepa Varadarajan, co-founder of Pramiti Philanthropy; Nitya Kaushik, head of communications, at WRI India; Roshni Nuggehalli, executive director of YUVA; and Vivek Gilani, a Lifetime Ashoka Fellow and an environmental engineer who co-founded cBalance.
The jury members looked at different criteria while selecting the 10 winners. It was a difficult task, as every ‘Angel’ has put in tremendous effort in their initiatives. After hours of deliberation and serious discussion, the jury members successfully arrived at a consensus.
The individuals were assessed based on a set of criteria, which helped the jury sift through each entry and choose names that fit in best with the set parameters. The focus was on — clarity of mission, growth prospects, self-evaluation and reviews to monitor progress, partnerships and collaborations with the government or other groups for further engagement with the public, and sustainability and growth prospects of the effort.
Sharing her thoughts on the selection process, Nitya said, “We ensured that we were looking at different areas of their work. We chose people who had clarity of thought, who knew what they were doing, why they were doing it, and how it was going to affect the residents of Mumbai. I felt encouraged to understand that there are so many people working in this space, which in itself is a great thing.”
Echoing similar sentiments, and adding further, Deepa shared, “To arrive at the final 10 was not an easy process. It was difficult but the criteria we used as part of the selection were very objective. I would also like to give it to FPJ’s team to have organised such a fantastic jury process. It was well-structured with all the documents provided beforehand to help us prepare, which made the final discussion easier and more productive.”
Explaining her point on the selection process, Roshni said, “We were looking at groups and people who understood the structural causes of issues; who understood the need to tackle issues at the systems level and that there was a need to work in collaboration with the state government, communities and other groups of people. We do see these 10 being an encouragement and motivation for other ‘Angels’ coming forward in the next years. We tried to keep the mix alive and are excited to have these winners.”
Speaking compassionately about the whole process, Vivek shared, “It was quite a challenging task to be confronted with. So much hope and so much initiative, so much conviction, and belief among them. Whether it was an individual on a crusade against an issue in their particular street or their neighbourhood compared to something at a city level, all of them were well-intentioned. We held that in our consciousness all through the process. So even when we were ‘eliminating’ somebody, we were aware of how this could be done sensitively with a lot of deliberation and compassion. I think it was a well-balanced process.”
A felicitation function for the winners will be held in the third week of January in 2023.
