Educationist Dr Armaity Desai and veteran journalist and editor Bachi Karkaria were recognized for their work in gender and equality issues at the Laadli Awards 2024 at the Tata Theatre of the National Centre for the Performing Arts on October 10, 2024. Desai received the Laadli of the Century Award while Karkaria was presented the Laadli Lifetime Achievement Award.
Desai underlined how her parents, Tehmina and Sapur Desai, afforded her and her brother Xerxes, founder director of Titan Industries, with equal opportunities for personal freedom, outside-the-home activities and learning experiences. "This is as much my award as all my colleagues’ but for whose efforts many activities and projects could not have been on the ground or matured,” she was quoted in a press release on the event. Desai added that her role model was her mother who "freed herself from cultural bindings, much to her father’s chagrin but her mother’s support.” The educationist expressed gratitude for the opportunities she had in her life: head of the College of Social Work at Nirmala Niketan, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the University Grants Commission. Ill health prevented her from being physically present at Tata Theatre for the Awards function.
Top: Dr Armaity Desai; above, from l: Ratna Pathak Shah, Bachi Karkaria, Yogesh Pawar
The first Indian on the World Editors’ Forum, Karkaria told Parsiana before the event that it was "heartwarming” to receive this recognition for a subject that’s been close to her heart for a long time, even personally. "The Laadli Awards are an important way of turning the spotlight on gender issues, which need all the coverage they can get… The dice continues to be loaded against women from birth, or even before they can see the light of day — despite all the lip service, despite the plethora of politically driven welfare projects and hand-outs.” The veteran of words informed Parsiana that she "coined the word ‘foeticide’ back in the 1980s while writing editorials for The Statesman. This was when the important diagnostic tool of amniocentesis for identifying congenital disease was weaponized to abort female foetuses.” The press note on the Awards commended Karkaria’s "interesectionalizing of gender in urbanization and public health reporting and her emergence as an advisor to several global bodies.”
"Laadli, a form of endearment, is now a name that has grown to be recognized as a touchstone for gender sensitivity in media,” states their press note.
Former program director and trustee of Population First, Dr A. L. Sharada, called the awards "a way of acknowledging the significant contribution of content creators across literature, advertising, films, and OTT (Over The Top) platforms.” Current program director Yogesh Pawar said, "In my 30-year journalism stint I’ve seen a lot of exceptional work but what these awards aim to recognize and celebrate stands out. I feel proud to belong to a fraternity which includes the 10 exceptional awardees nationwide and the 14 South Asian journalists.”
Previous winners of the Award include actor Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal (see "Impactful Monologues,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, January 7-20, 2021) and grand dame of the fashion world Jeannie Naoroji (see "The models’ role model,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, July 7, 2016). Farrokh Jijina