DCPCR award for Indian Express journalist

Chief Justice of the Odisha High Court, Justice Dr S Muralidhar, and Education Minister Atishi conferred the awards in the categories of child protection, health, nutrition, arts and academics.

Others who won were Justice Madan B Lokur, former judge of the Supreme Court, under the jurist category for “his judicial contribution to prioritise the cause of children in need of care and protection and for his advocacy to bring focus on implementation of children-friendly statutes such as Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children ) Act 2015”. Anant Kumar Asthana, a child rights lawyer, also won under the same category.

IAS officer Pulkit Khare won under the public service category for helping over 3,400 malnourished children in Hardoi district and over 2,000 malnourished children in Pilibhit. P VIjayan, IPS, Roshnilla Gurung, District Child Protection Officer, and Rukmani Riar Sihad, IAS, won alongside Khare under the same category.

Under the children’s category, Balaknama, “a newspaper run by children in street situation” and mentored by the NGO Chetna won “for their inspiring and educational monthly newsletter” being run by street and working children”.

Under the same category, Delhi government school student Harsh won for his “entrepreneurial idea of creating organic compost using abandoned wet waste”, Muskan Ahirwar won for her “efforts towards improving the foundational learning among children in her slum area through her library ‘Kitabi Masti’ since 2016”.

Stating that the children’s category is one of the most inspirational, Atishi said, “It is so inspiring to see children taking efforts at such a young age to provide a better life to their counterparts in their communities. Be it a young girl from Bhopal running a library for children in her slum or children from UP bringing out their own newspaper on children’s issues, each and every story in this category was an inspiration.”