NEW DELHI, August 17: More than half the entries for the 6th national photo competition on literacy and adult education were disqualified by the judges today. They did not meet the ``last-minute'' requirement of the National Literacy Mission the organisers of the contest.Rule Eight of the criteria for selection given to the judges specifies that the photograph should focus on the age-group of 15 to 35 years, which the contestants allege was not laid down earlier.``There was no indication in the numerous advertisements given by the National Literacy Mission regarding the age group,'' said an outraged contestant. ``This contest is held every year but this is the first time that such a rule has been mentioned. Moreover, it was not even mentioned in the application forms that were given to us and even the judges did not know about this condition till they started judging.''Another contestant pointed out: ``They should hold the contest again because this particular stipulation changes everything. How can they forget such an important stipulation and why should we pay for it? We spent so much time and care in taking the pictures and they just dismiss it like this. This is unfair.''Even the judges were apparently taken by surprise when they were given the selection criteria today. ``Around 70 per cent of the entries had children or old people as their subject,'' says one of the judges. ``We had to disregard them because our instructions today clearly said that the subject should be in the age group of 15 to 35 years. A majority of the entries were just dumped because the new condition disqualified all these entries.''P.K. Tripathi, director, National Literacy Mission, however, said that the age-group factor is understood. ``We expect the contestants to know that adult literacy programmes run by us are targeted at the 15 to 35 age-group.The two kinds of pictures that don't qualify for the contest are those of school children and very old people,'' he said, admitting that the need to specify this detail in their advertisements has been realised. ``The aim of the contest is to make people aware of our programmes. We now realise that people are not aware of what the adult-education programme is all about. From next year, we are thinking of specifying the age-group specification in our advertisements.''Contestants, however, argue that the age-group factor will not work out. ``How will the judges know whether a person photographed is 35 or 40?'' questions a contestant. Further, he alleges that prize-winning entries in previous years have featured people who do not necessarily fall in the specified age-group.With prize money worth Rs 30,000 to be won, contestants whose photographs have been disqualified are smarting.This annual photography contest draws participants from all across the country and is a highly competitive event. The President is scheduled to give away the awards to this year's winners on September 8.
