By TCN News
In the 4th Edition of Connections 2020 by the IIMC Alumni Association, independent journalist Meena Kotwal was awarded the Indian Institute of Mass Communication Alumni Association (IIMCAA) 2020 Award on Sunday.
The awarding ceremony was celebrated during the Annual Alumni Meet where Meena Kotwal was felicitated with the honour and prize money of Rs 21,000. A woman reporter coming from a Dalit background, Meena, has created history by being the first journalist to win awards simultaneously in two different categories – Investigative Reporting and Developmental Reporting.
One of her stories, on two Dalit children killed in Madhya Pradesh for open defecation received Special Mention from the Jury and was covered for Twocircles.net. In this story where Meena fearlessly reports from ground zero on how the two children were killed and one of them was raped before being murdered mercilessly due to her caste has won in the category ‘Investigative Reporting.’
Her second story done for BBC Hindi was on the death of a worker during sewer cleanup in Delhi. She explains how lack of safety equipments kills many workers every year. This story has won in the category of ‘Developmental Reporting.’
Meena Kotwal has been a student of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC,Delhi) (2013-14 batch) in Radio and Television Journalism, other than having studied in reputed institutions – Jamia Millia Islamia Central University and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Central University, Lucknow. Other than the BBC, she has worked for a number of other organizations before she started working as an independent journalist seven months back. She is currently associated with Twocircles.net.
Meena is best known for voicing out the grievances and issues of the marginalized and has gained much recognition due to her work covering reports from the lower and neglected strata of society.
Twocircles.net extends heartiest congratulations to Meena’s courageous and fearless journalism and congratulates her on her unique achievement. Additionally, Twocircles.net feels deeply motivated to continue being the voice of the marginalized and the oppressed bringing unheard stories from the neglected strata.
IIMCAA President Prasad Sanyal had chaired the Connections 2020, which was attended by notable dignitaries like Principal DG of PIB, DD News DG Mayank Agrawal, IIMC ADG K Satish Nambudiripad, IFFCO IIMCAA Awards Convenor Rajeev Deshpande, IIMCAA Medical Assistance Fund Chairman Kalyan Ranjan and IIMCAA Scholarships Chairman Anuranjan Jha along with the alumni across India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
The national meet of Connections 2020 in Delhi will be followed by chapter-level meets over the next two months across major cities in India and abroad, including Mumbai, Bhubaneswar, Dhenkanal, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Ranchi, Pune, Kochi, Bengaluru, Dubai, Singapore, Dhaka and Kathmandu.