By TCN News,
New Delhi: ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) and Sangat, a South Asian Feminist Network, have invited nominations for the Meeto Memorial Award for the year 2010. The award was instituted in 2009 to honor young South Asians whose work demonstrate a commitment to communal harmony, peace, justice and human rights.
The Award comprises of Indian Rupees one lakh, a citation and a memento. If more than one person is selected, the money will be shared. The recipients will be invited to present their work at the award ceremony. The Award will be announced in October 2010. The recipients of the Award will be chosen by a selection committee whose decision will be final. The Meeto Memorial Award 2010 ceremony will be held in October 2010 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Eligibility
Nominees must be:
–Under the age of 40
–Citizens of a South Asian country (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka)
–Working on issues of communal harmony, peace, justice and/or human rights, broadly conceived; the nominee may be working anywhere in the world, but the focus of the work should be on South Asia as defined above
–Working in any capacity in the field of activism, advocacy, academia, and journalism, and in any medium such as writing, art, dance, music, film, and theatre.
Individuals can nominate themselves or other eligible people.
Nominations must be sent in writing, and accompanied by a detailed CV of the nominated person, a note on reasons for nomination and a duly filled form (available at http://www.meetomemorialaward.org/IMG/pdf/NominationForm2010.pdf ).
Nominations must be received before 31 July 2010 and should be sent to
[email protected] or be posted to:
Meeto Memorial Award Secretariat
c/o ANHAD
23, Caning Lane
New Delhi 110001 ( India )
The nominations will be judged by the Advisory Committee of the Meeto Memorial Award which comprises the following individuals:
Asma Jahangir, Pakistan
Hameeda Hossain , Bangladesh
Sithie Tiruchelvam , Sri Lanka
Syeda Hameed , India
Sadanand Menon , India
Anusha Lall , India
Rahul Rao , India / UK
Kamla Bhasin , India
The 2009 award was won by Anusheh Anadil (from Bangladesh) and Laxmi Ben Vankar (from India) in 2009.
In 2009, Kamla Bhasin, Meeto’s mother, instituted the award in Meeto’s memory to honour young South Asians for commitment to communal harmony, peace, justice and human rights.
About Meeto
Meeto (Kamaljit Bhasin-Malik; 1978-2006) was a scholar, activist and dancer. She graduated with first class honours in History from Stephen’s College. With the Radhakrishnan-British Chevening Scholarship, she studied History in Oxford University and graduated with a first class honours. Meeto’s pre-doctoral research at Oxford was tragically interrupted by her passing away in 2006. Her work In the Making Identity Formation in South Asia is published by the Three Essays Collective.
Meeto researched and wrote on projects ranging from the refugee problem in post-Partition Punjab to the role of parliamentarians in Indian democracy and the role of the colonial census in creating monolithic identities in Sri Lanka.
Meeto also was the first primary coordinator of SAHR (South Asians for Human Rights) and helped organize the first general convention of SAHR in Rajasthan. Between 2003 and mid-2004, she worked as a programme associate at the Ford Foundation in Delhi working on human rights and development issues.
As a dancer, Meeto performed with Leela Samson’s dance production Spanda across India and in Bangladesh.