Vartika Nanda
Vartika Nanda is a prison reformer and media educator from India. She is the founder of Tinka Tinka, a movement targeted towards prison reforms. She is recipient of Stree Shakti Puraskar Stree Shakti Puraskar (Rani Gaidinliu Zeliang Award) conferred by President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee. It is the highest civilian honour for women in India on women empowerment. This award was given to her in Rashtrapati Bhavan on International Women's Day in 2014. The award was given in recognition of her contribution for creating awareness on women's issues through media and literature. Her work on  prison reforms has been recognized by Limca Book of Records twice. She has conceptualised, trained and executed prison radio in District Jail, Agra and in the state of Haryana, India. She is the story teller and voice behind Kissa Khaki Ka, podcast series started by Delhi Police. Kissa Khaki Ka has already completed 3 months of its inception in April, 2022. Currently, she heads the Department for Journalism at Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi University. She began her career as a journalist with ZEE TV Zee India and rose to become the head of crime beat in NDTV. She  has to her credit for being the first female crime reporter on electronic media in India. She was the first Executive Producer of Lok Sabha TV. Professional Experience. With a doctorate in Journalism on the issues of coverage of rape cases by Indian print media, she is currently the head of the Department of Journalism in Lady Shri Ram College of Delhi University. She has taught Television Journalism at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi as Associate Professor for three years. She has held various journalistic assignments in electronic media including Zee News, NDTV and Lok Sabha TV. Vartika  was the First Executive Producer of Lok Sabha TV and played an instrumental role in the conception, setting up and running of the channel. Her association with television news started at the age of twelve as the youngest television anchor in Asia. She is also the Associate Editor of the quarterly journal on media, "Communication Today". As a regular columnist, she has contributed to Zee News, News18 Hindi The Pioneer and Hindi Outlook She was the editor of "Gaon ki Selfie", a periodical dedicated to developmental communication, along with well known bureaucrat Rashmi Singh. She was also the honorary editor  of "Media Dunia", a section dedicated to news media industry views and analysis, run by Web Dunia. Web Dunia has the distinction of being the first Hindi web portal in the world. Media Educator, Trainer and Researcher. Her research areas include prisons, relationship between police, crime and the persecution of victims, gender reporting and portrayal of women in media. She also specializes in imparting training on crisis communication. Her book Television aur Crime Reporting, published by Rajkamal Prakashan, was given Bhartendu Harish Chandra Award by Information & Broadcasting Ministry (Government of India) in 2007. Testimonial for this book was written by  Shri Harivansh, Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha Prison Reformer. Vartika Nanda is a crusader on prison reforms and the first Indian academician to have started a continuous project solely on prison reforms. She is the founder of Tinka Tinka - a unique series to bring change in the lives of jail inmates. Vartika Nanda is credited to have curated and created the concept of awards for inmates and prison staff for the first time in India. Two national awards exclusively for inmates - Tinka Tinka India Awards and Tinka Tinka Bandini Awards- have been instituted by her as part of the effort. Started  in 2015, the award ceremony is organised in a different state every year. Her name has been included in the Limca Book of Records twice for her unique work on prison reforms. Tinka Jail Radio. Vartika Nanda was instrumental for conceptualizing, training and executing prison radio in the state of Haryana, India. Launched in 2021, Panipat Jail Radio is the first prison radio of the state, followed by District Jail, Faridabad and Central Jail, Ambala. 7 radio stations in Haryana are operational. Vartika Nanda has also created, produced and released 6 songs from different jails. BRUT did a 10 minute  long story revolving around reformation of inmates through Tinka Jail Radio in District Jail, Panipat, in January 2022. She is also playing key role in introducing prison radio in the state of Uttarakhand Jail Radio in District Jail, Agra in Uttar Pradesh, was conceived and executed by her in 2019. Uttar Pradesh is the largest state in India. Prison Radios have helped inmates immensely, especially during Covid 19. Vartika Nanda has curated Tinka Prison Radio Podcasts, which are the only podcasts in India, solely dedicated to prison reforms. Started in 2020, these podcasts are based on original voices from different  prisons. These are scripted and voiced by Vartika Nanda and are broadcast regularly on her You Tube Channel. Published Books. Prison Reforms Journalism & Mass Communication Literature