91 year old veteran Fashion Choreographer Jeannie Naoroji awarded the Laadli Lifetime Achievement Award
Yesteryear Super Models Zeenat Aman, Salome Roy Kapoor, Esther Daswani, Nandini Sen and more walked the ramp
The seventh edition of the Laadli Media and Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity
2014-15 honoured and felicitated 25 professionals who have shown exemplary sensitivity in
reporting on gender issues thus helping bring more public awareness and accountability on
the part of the government and implementers of social development programmes on 13th April
2016 at Mumbai. It had 25 Awards across various categories in Advertising and Media.
Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson, State Bank of India, was the Chief Guest for the
evening and Mr. Diego Palacios, Country Representative, UNFPA was the Guest of Honour.
The highlight of the event was a unique Fashion Show, Fashion Rewind’ specially
choreographed by 91 year old veteran Fashion Choreographer Jeannie Naoroji who won
the Laadli Lifetime Achievement Award. The famous yesteryear super models who were
seen on the ramp paying a tribute to Jeannie included Zeenat Aman, Salome Roy Kapoor,
Esther Daswani, Nandini Sen, Nandini Kamdar nee Naqi Jehan, Kavita Bhambhani Singh,
Kiran Joneja Sippy, Anna Bredmayer, Marianne D’souza Rao, Pheroza Mody, Asgar Ali and
Deepak Parashar. Wendell Rodricks and Neeta Lulla provided the apparels for the fashion
The other celebrities present at the Awards Show were, Shobhaa De, Dolly Thakore,
Siddharth Roy Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Kunal Roy Kapoor, Tisca Chopra, Sunita Rao,
Ramesh Sippy and more.
The Award ceremony was opened by a LIVE performance by E-Factor- an all women
band comprising of Sunita Bhuyana (Violinist), Merlin D’souza (Pianist) and Swarupa
Ananth (Percussionist).
This year the Laadli Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Fashion Designer and
celebrated fashion choreographer, Jeannie Naoroji.
Award for the category ‘Innovative Campaign’ was bestowed on Menstrupedia, by Aditi
Gupta, the Founder who has been working relentlessly in her effort to educate society about
menstrual health and hygiene through her comic books and others for Out of Print and
Ahmedabad Mirror (Art book).
Award for ‘Books’ was awarded to The Seasons of Trouble by Rohini Mohan and In Search
of Freedom by Sagari Chhabra.
Award for ‘Films’ was awarded to Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Aligarh and Margarita with a
Award for ‘Best Campaign’ was given to ‘Anouk’- Calling . And for the ‘Best
Product’, Titan Raga was awarded for Break the Bias campaign. The Laadli Media Award for
‘Game Changer’ will be given to Havells.
Award for ‘Best Play’ was given to “Ila” a play by Patchwork Ensemble directed by Puja
Award for ‘Promoting Investigative Reporting’ was given to The Week Magazine.
The jury for the awards included editors, writers, academicians and media professionals
like Siddharth Bhatia, Amy Fernandes, Mark Manuel, Sashi Baliga, Kumar Ketkar, Sameera
Khan, Tina Mehta, Monica Tata, Meghana Pant and Amrita Choudhary.
Speaking on the occasion Dr. A.L. Sharada, Director of Population First and the Initiator
of Laadli Campaign said “An analysis of media coverage shows that women feature
prominently on page 3 and in women’s supplements and crime stories. This needs to change.
We need to make women count in media by writing about them, by reporting from a gender
perspective and by using the power of the pen to make the politicians, governments, judiciary
and the executive responsible and accountable for building a society that is gender equal and
gender just.”
Announcement of the four recipients of The Laadli Media Fellowship supported by Aditya
Birla Group was also made during the evening. Each of the journalists received the
fellowship will write four investigative reports over a period of four months on the theme of
Gender and Disability – An Unexplored Dimension.
The Consulate General of Canada has awarded a special “Canada Fellowship on Diversity” to
one the regional Laadli Media Awardees. The award, which was announced during the
awards ceremony, included a study tour to Vancouver and Toronto from June 4-11focused on
religious, ethnic, gender and cultural diversity. The tour will provide an opportunity for the
winner to meet with educators, government officials, religious and community leaders to
learn about opportunities and challenges in Canada.
Mr. Jordan Reeves, Consul General for Canada in Mumbai said “Media is a powerful driver
of change and it is heartening to see so many Indian journalists, media and advertising
agencies addressing issues such as violence against women and gender stereotypes.
Women’s rights and gender equality are issues central to Canada’s foreign and domestic
policies. Gender equality is not only a human rights issue, but is also an essential component
of sustainable development, social justice, peace, and security. These goals will only be
achieved if women are able to participate as equal partners.”
Diego Palacios, Country Representative, UNFPA, India said, “UNFPA strives to address
discriminatory practices that impede gender equality. The Laadli awards for gender
sensitivity in Media and Advertising are a laudable strategy towards this end. UNFPA has
been supporting the awards because they widely recognize those individuals who have
pushed the levers of change and challenged gender stereotypes in news reporting,
advertisements and more recently in films. We are proud of the accomplishments that
the Laadi awards have obtained over the years.”
Population First is a not for profit organization with the objective to work towards gender
sensitive and social development-oriented health and population programmers. Population
First launched the campaign Laadli in year 2005 which comprises of the Media Awards,
Fellowships, Gender sensitization workshops for media, advertisers, scriptwriters
etc. Laadli Media Awards is the only one of its kind in the world given exclusively for
promoting gender sensitivity in the media. It is a yearlong advocacy initiative with senior
editors, media leaders, journalists, and cultural icons that culminates in the awards functions.
It is a positive campaign that highlights, acknowledges and rewards reporting and
communication that is gender sensitive
