# Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediapersons

The Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Mediaperson is an Indian journalism award named after Chameli Devi Jain, an Indian independence activist who became the first Jain woman to go to prison during India's independence struggle. The award was instituted in 1980 by The Media Foundation and is given to women in the field of journalism. According to Business Standard, the award is "perhaps India's longest running media award for women".
The Media Foundation was founded in 1979 by B. G. Verghese, Lakshmi Chand Jain, Prabhash Joshi, Ajit Bhattacharjea and N. S. Jagannathan. The award was instituted in 1980 by Verghese and the family of Chameli Devi. The criteria for selection include social concern, dedication, courage and compassion in the individual's work. Journalists in print, digital and broadcast are eligible including photographers, cartoonists and newspaper designers; the entries are judged by an independent jury. Preferences are given to rural or small-town journalists and journalists in regional Indian languages.
Neerja Chowdhury won the inaugural award in 1981. In 2015, Supriya Sharma of Scroll.in became the first online journalist to receive the award.

## Recipients

| Year | Recipient(s) | Associated media house(s)/notes | Ref. |
| 1981 | Neerja Chowdhury | The Statesman The Indian Express | |
| 1982 | Prabha Dutt Sevanti Ninan | – – | |
| 1983 | Shahnaz Anklesaria Aiyar Sakuntala Narasimhan | – | |
| 1984 | Sheela Barse | – | |
| 1985 | Madhu Purnima Kishwar | – | |
| 1986 | Kalpana Sharma | Himmat The Indian Express The Times of India | |
| 1987 | No winner | – | |
| 1988 | Tavleen Singh | India Today The Indian Express | |
| 1989 | Chitra Subramaniam | India Today | |
| 1990 | Usha Rai | – | |
| 1991 | Pushpa Girimaji Mediastorm Collective | – – | |
| 1992 | Sucheta Dalal Teesta Setalvad | The Times of India The Indian Express | |
| 1993 | Sheela Bhatt Alka Raghuvanshi Manimala | India Today | |
| 1994 | Shubha Singh | The Telegraph The Pioneer The Khaleej Times | |
| 1995 | Patricia Mukhim | The Shillong Times | |
| 1996 | Annam Suresh Rehana Hakim | – – | |
| 1997 | Anita Pratap | CNN Time | |
| 1998 | Homai Vyarawalla | – | |
| 1999 | Barkha Dutt Pamela Philipose Vasavi Kiro | NDTV The Times of India Prabhat Khabar | [22] [23] [24] |
| 2000 | Kunjal Paanje Kutchji | Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan | |
| 2001 | Bano Haralu | Eastern Mirror | |
| 2002 | Shikha Trivedi | – | |
| 2003 | Sonu Jain Chitrakoot Rural Women's Collective | The Indian Express Khabar Lahariya | [27] [28] |
| 2004 | Sunita Narain | Down to Earth magazine | |
| 2005 | Ratna Bharali Talukdar | – | |
| 2006 | Nilanjana Bose Sreerekha B | CNN-IBN Vanitha | |
| 2007 | Rupashree Nanda | CNN-IBN | |
| 2008 | Nirupama Subramanian Vinita Deshmukh | The Hindu | |
| 2009 | Monalisa Changkija Shoma Chaudhury | Nagaland Page Tehelka | |
| 2010 | Shahina K. K. | Open | |
| 2011 | Tusha Mittal | Tehelka | |
| 2012 | Alka Dhupkar | IBN Lokmat | |
| 2013 | Anubha Bhonsle | CNN-News18 | |
| 2014 | Supriya Sharma | Scroll.in | |
| 2015 | Priyanka Kakodkar Raksha Kumar | The Times of India – | |
| 2016 | Neha Dixit | – | |
| 2017 | Uma Sudhir | NDTV | |
| 2018 | Priyanka Dubey | BBC | |
| 2019 | Arfa Khanum Sherwani Rohini Mohan | The Wire – | |
| 2020 | Neetu Singh | Goan Connection | |
| 2021 | Aarefa Johari | Scroll.in | |
| 2022 | Dhanya Rajendran | The News Minute | |
| 2024 | Ritika Chopra Greeshma Kuthar | The Indian Express – | |
Note that before 2024 the award made in one year was named for the previous year, thus the award made in March 2023 was the 2022 award, but in 2024 the system changed and the award made in March 2024 was called the 2024 award.