WaterAid India announces ‘The Final Six!’ Fellows for ‘WASH Matters 2018’ Media Fellowship

on
4 October 2018
WaterAid India announces ‘The Final Six!’ Fellows for ‘WASH Matters 2018’ Media Fellowship

WaterAid India announces ‘The Final Six!’
Fellows for ‘WASH Matters 2018’ Media Fellowship

With an aim to create awareness around water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) issues in the country and encourage in-depth reportage, WaterAid India launched its first Media Fellowship Program in India ‘WASH Matters 2018’ in July 2018 calling for applications.

With 600 million people facing high to extreme water stress and two lakh people dying every year dying due to inadequate access to safe water, India is suffering from ‘the worst ever water crises’ in its history, as per the Composite Water Management Index Report 2018 by the Niti Aayog.

In order to not just understand the water crisis faced by India but also to look into context specific sustainable solutions, ideas and examples to mitigate this crisis, for this year, the broad theme of the Media Fellowship is ‘Water’. Selected media fellows will be encouraged to explore and pursue in-depth stories on various aspects of the theme, largely – water access, water quality and water conservation.

WASH Matters 2018 received excellent applications for the fellowship from the length and breadth of the country suggesting various issues to be explored. Post an intensive review process advised by a Jury Panel of seasoned and accomplished media personalities:

  • Sanjeev Srivastava, former editor of BBC Hindi service
  • Anubha Bhonsle, former executive editor, CNN-News18
  • Pankaj Pachauri, founder and editor-in-chief of Gonews

WaterAid India is excited to announce the names of the final six recipients of WASH Matters 2018 Media Fellowship:

  • Sibi Arasu: Assistant Editor at Hindustan Times in Bangalore, he writes on environment, science and climate change related issues and has earlier worked as an independent journalist with leading media outlets such as The Hindu, The Times of India and India Today.
  • Malavika Vyawahare: An award-winning environmental journalist who writes on energy and environment with a focus on the intersection of health and environment. A Columbia J-School alum, she has worked with The New York Times and Hindustan Times in Delhi.
  • Manu Moudgil: An independent journalist writing on governance, agriculture, and environment for various mainstream and alternative media outlets.
  • Azera Rahman: An independent, award-winning journalist. She writes primarily on development issues, including health and environment.
  • Pankaj Ramendu: An independent journalist for various publications and the author of Dar Dar Gange (Fiction/Travelogue by Penguin), Rehadi (Poetry collection by Hind Yugm) and Guldatse ki Gumti (Short stories, to be published).
  • Pradip Kumar Srivastav: An independent journalist for various media organisations including BBC News India, Jansatta and Amar Ujala.

Nanditta Chibber, Manager – Media & Communications at WaterAid India, said:

With the selection of the final six fellows, we are very excited as WASH Matters 2018, the first media fellowship by WaterAid India and a first for the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector kick-starts to explore stories around the focus theme - water.

Wishing the fellows the very best! We hope that this media fellowship will help them pursue in-depth stories on water in many untapped geographies in context to access, health, contamination, and conservation and revival systems.

In today’s dynamic media landscape with diverse platforms and innovative formats, their stories will further help to start sustained conversations on critical issues around water that not just need attention but also urgent action.

To further sensitise the media fellows and the larger media fraternity on the theme of water, WaterAid India also organised a media workshop with insightful inputs by the following WaterAid and other external experts:

  • VK Madhavan, Chief Executive at WaterAid India on understanding water landscape
  • Amit Nair, an independent consultant and water quality expert on water from the rural perspective
  • Vishwanath S., Founder of Biome Solutions on water from the urban perspective
  • Arundati Muralidharan, Policy Manager at WaterAid India on water’s impact on health              
  • Rakesh Reddy, Founder at Factly on decoding data for stories              
  • Nirma Bora, Research & Advocacy Officer at WaterAid India on water conservation in rural India

To know more about the fellowship and shortlisted fellows, visit: https://www.wateraid.org/in/media-fellowship

ENDS

For more information, please contact:
Our media team at [email protected]

Notes to Editors:

WaterAid
WaterAid is an international not-for-profit, determined to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. Only by tackling these three essentials in ways that last can people change their lives for good.

Working in India since 1986, WaterAid has successfully implemented water, sanitation, and hygiene projects, extending benefits to some of the poorest and most vulnerable communities across 11+ of India’s 29 States.

For more information, visit www.wateraidIndia.in, follow @WaterAidIndia on Twitter, or visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/WaterAidIndia.

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