Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediapersons
The Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediaperson is an Indian journalistic award named after Chameli Devi Jain, an Indian freedom fighter who became the first Jain woman to go to prison during India's freedom 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. According to Business Standard, the award is "perhaps India's longest running media award for women".
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. The most recent award was given to Arfa Khanum Sherwani of The Wire and Rohini Mohan, an independent journalist.
Recipients
| Year | Recipient | Associated media house/notes | |
| 1981 | The Statesman The Indian Express | ||
| 1982 | |||
| 1983 | |||
| 1984 | |||
| 1985 | |||
| 1986 | Himmat The Indian Express The Times of India | ||
| 1987 | No winner | ||
| 1988 | India Today The Indian Express | ||
| 1989 | India Today | ||
| 1990 | |||
| 1991 | Mediastorm Collective | ||
| 1992 | The Times of India The Indian Express | ||
| 1993 | Manimala | India Today | |
| 1994 | The Telegraph The Pioneer The Khaleej Times | ||
| 1995 | Shillong Times | ||
| 1996 | |||
| 1997 | CNN TIME magazine | ||
| 1998 | |||
| 1999 | NDTV The Times of India Prabhat Khabar | ||
| 2000 | Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan | ||
| 2001 | Eastern Mirror | ||
| 2002 | |||
| 2003 | Chitrakoot Rural Women's Collective | The Indian Express Khabar Lahariya | |
| 2004 | Down to Earth magazine | ||
| 2005 | |||
| 2006 | CNN-IBN Vanitha | ||
| 2007 | CNN-IBN | ||
| 2008 | The Hindu | ||
| 2009 | Nagaland Page Tehelka | ||
| 2010 | Open Magazine | ||
| 2011 | Tehelka | ||
| 2012 | IBN Lokmat | ||
| 2013 | CNN-News18 | ||
| 2014 | Scroll.in | ||
| 2015 | The Times of India | ||
| 2016 | |||
| 2017 | NDTV | ||
| 2018 | BBC | ||
| 2019 | The Wire |