Svran-Apeejay Journalism Foundation

Ms. Anuradha Sharma is an accomplished freelance journalist with over two decades of experience in the field. Serving as the India correspondent for Reporters Without Borders and an India Analyst for media startup Newsreel Asia, she has consistently demonstrated a keen eye for uncovering stories of social significance.

Her project explores the dynamic intersection of daily life at the Saraswatipur tea estate in the Terai region of West Bengal with the unexpected emergence of rugby as a transformative force. Through meticulous research and firsthand accounts, she illuminates the journeys of over 400 young individuals, predominantly girls from tribal and Nepali-speaking communities, who have embraced rugby as a pathway to a brighter future. This project is a remarkable tale of resilience and empowerment within India's rugby revolution, with a particular focus on marginalized youths using the sport as a means to combat poverty.

Mr. Rayees Ramzan is a passionate journalist from the beautiful region of Jammu and Kashmir, India. With a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism, Rayees is currently working as a freelance journalist while also studying for his master's degree.

Rayees's upcoming project focuses on the inspiring stories of “Women in Kashmir” who are making a difference. He'll share how these women are breaking barriers and succeeding in fields like business, sports, leadership, and art. Rayees will illuminate the transformative impact of central-sponsored welfare schemes and women self-help groups in empowering these women and reshaping societal norms.

Using his video format storytelling, he will tell six amazing stories, each capturing the resilience and triumph of Kashmiri women on their journey to empowerment and ensuring that these stories of resilience and triumph reach the hearts and minds of audiences far and wide.

Ms. Sunaina Kumar is a New Delhi based independent journalist whose works have appeared in the Guardian, Al-Jazeera, BBC, The Atlantic, Mint, IndiaSpend and Scroll.in. She had been reporting and editing for close to 15+ years before this, for the Indian Express, Open Magazine and Tehelka.

For her project , she will work on the role of self-help groups in India and their connection with the political and social empowerment of rural women.

Ms. Bhavya Dore is a Mumbai based freelance journalist writing on sports, gender and culture. She was a full-time journalist with the Hindustan Times for five years prior to her stint as a freelancer.

For her project, she will work on a series of stories of women and sports in India. This will include dimensions like the evolution of fanship, and the broader role for women in positions of leadership, officialdom and administration as well as stories of women athletes and teams.

Mr. Nitindra Bandyopadhyay is a developmental and health, reporter, who has worked for publications like The Pioneer, Hindustan Times, New-Indian Express and The Bangalore Mirror. He has reported from different corners of the country on different social issues with a focus on Women and Child Development.

For this project, he will explore the reach of the government’s Mental Health Program and its impact on the rural community in general and farmer’s suicide in particular along the drought-prone regions of Karnataka. The focus of the study is to explore farmer’s suicide from a mental health perspective.

As a part of the project a series of stories will be published over a period of time detailing the interventions introduced under the Mental Health Policy, especially the promotion of community participation in detecting mental ailment to work as a deterrent to suicide, so that same approach could be replicated across the country to bring down the burden of suicides.

Mr. Pawan Dhall has worked as a sub-editor and features writer with ‘Business Standard’ and other publications in India and abroad on current affairs and social development issues.

For his project, Mr. Dhall will write and publish stories to trace the impact of the earliest years of queer activism in eastern India through the life stories of a few gay/lesbian individuals who lived in the region in the early and mid-1990s and were influenced by the nascent community mobilization efforts of those years.

These stories will provide an insight in the functioning of the queer support groups and how the outreach through media and letters helped them grow as emotional support providers, information resources, and eventually as community education, research, and advocacy forums.

Dr. Radheshyam Jadhav is a development communication researcher – journalist for last 18 years and has experience of working with The Maharashtra Herald, The Indian Express and The Times of India.

For his project Dr. Jadhav will research and publish stories in a book about women farmers in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Rooted deep in local culture and tradition, women farmers in these regions are engaged in developing agricultural paradigms and models that have emerged as an alternative to patriarchal dominant agricultural system. Through these stories based on empowerment journalism model, he aims to bring out an affirmative side of agrarian crisis in these regions wherein despite all the odds, humiliation, and pressures by patriarchal society, these women through their innovations in agriculture are changing the lives of their kids and other family members.