Ashwaq Masoodi, a Delhi based Kashmiri journalist, who presently works with Mint, is one among the recipients of this year's Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism awards for her series on those breaking the caste barrier – from businesswomen to wrestlers.She received the award under Uncovering India Invisible.Besides Massodi, Delhi based Kashmiri photo journalist, Burhaan Kinu, presently working with The Hindustan Times, too was awarded on the occasion.
"When we thought about the series, we broadly wanted to focus on the aspirations of India and examine a cross-section of all barriers, including caste, religion and gender. I had been writing on Dalits for a while now — going to their conferences, meeting NGOs which work for them and meeting people at DICCI (Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry). That's when I got to know about some people attempting to break the caste barrier by not being embarrassed of their Dalit identity, asserting it in a way that would help them move ahead in life. After the series, a lot of the discourse revolved around aspiration, at least on social media, as far as I could see. I remember people emailing me and telling me how they thought it was their story, except that the characters were different. The urban elite do not define India, these stories from villages in Haryana and Bihar do, and that is why people connected with them," Ashwaq Masooqi said about her work.
Hearty COngratulations from Prasar Bharati Parivar.
Forwarded By: rafeeq masoodi ,rafeeq_masoodi@yahoo.co.in
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