TOI Correspondent gets UNPFA-LAADLI MEDIA award

NEW DELHI: In recognition of his work for highlighting gender issues, Ajay Sura, a special correspondent of The Times of India, was on Thursday awarded the prestigious Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity (LMAAGS) 2014-15.
The Laadli awards are a part of media advocacy efforts of a campaign by Population First, an NGO working on health, population and gender issues, and are supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
As many as 51 journalists from Eastern and Northern region were conferred with the prestigious award in various categories for their contribution in writing on gender issues. Winners were facilitated at the award ceremony held on Thursday evening at India Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi.
The jury for the awards include senior advocates from Supreme Court, veteran journalists, faculty of various universities and people from art and literature from various parts of the country.
As many as 51 journalists received awards at a ceremony organised by Population First and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities here. The works of awardees ranged over diverse issues, including problems faced by school girls in villages, sexual harassment faced by female defence personnel, the struggles of war widows, female foeticide arc.
The Laadli Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred on Nirupama Borgohain, one of the most prolific writers in Assam. Chairperson of Population First, Dr A L Sharda congeratulated the awardees and appreciated their efforts for writing in women related issues.
Ajay has received the award for his news reports highlighting how despite clamping down on medical practitioners involved in sex determination tests and launching various awareness schemes to increase the sex ratio by the state government, the quantum of sentence prescribed in the PCPNDT act has failed to instill fear among the culprit doctors.
In his series of reports, he highlighted how a large number of cases of doctors arrested or convicted for conducting sex determination tests from 1997 to 2009 are pending before courts or has not attained finality till date.