Young Manipur achievers walk away with Sanskriti awards

New Delhi:

The awardees were Thoudam Netrajit Singh for literature, Anahita Mukherji for journalism, Prajakta Potnis for art, Kapila Venu for dance and Street Survivors India, an NGO for social achievement.

Singh (35) from Manipur, who could not study beyond Class X due to health issues, was awarded for his poems on the Manipur situation, particularly human rights, efforts at achieving peace, and disappointments faced by the younger generation.

Mukherji (27) was awarded for stories she had contributed to a popular news daily on issues concerning “stark inequality in the Mumbai education system and the contrast between schools for the rich and the poor”.

Mukherji has been covering the education sector for the last five years. Thirty-year-old Potnis was awarded the Sanskriti Award for art. Besides having her work exhibited in a travelling museum show titled ‘Indian Highway’ at the Herning Museum of Contemporary Art and Astrup Fearnley Art at Denmark, her work have also been featured in publications such as ‘I am Not There: New Art from Asia’.

Venu (28) is a practitioner of Kutiyattam, which has been described by UNESCO as an oral and intangible heritage of humanity. After winning the Sanskriti award for dance, she thanked her parents and Guru Ammannur Madhava Chakyar for all their support.

Street Survivors India (SSI), the NGO that bagged the Sanskriti Award for social achievement, was established in Katna, a village in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district in 1998. The NGO, headed by Shabnam Ramaswamy, established a school — Jagriti Public School — for disadvantaged children. Besides imparting education, SSI has also created an informal arbitration court at the local block level, which covers 264 villages.

The awards, carrying a cash prize of Rs 50,000 each and citations, were presented by Ashok Vajpeyi, chairman of the Sanskriti Awards Committee and the Lalit Kala Akademi.