In the summer of 2010, I went to India to report (write and shoot video) and help produce ‘Undesired’, a multimedia story about violence against women in India, for MediaStorm, an award-winning multimedia production studio. My mission was to bring alive photojournalist Walter Astrada’s haunting images with video testimonies from women, activists, government officials etc. As an Indian woman, it was a very moving and challenging experience, but I was also inspired by women like Mitu, the main voice in the piece, who let me into her life and trusted me to tell her story with dignity.
‘Undesired’ was named the first Digital Reporting winner of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards. We were also nominated for an Emmy for New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming, a Webby for Public Service and Activism and a World Press Photo award for Multimedia. ‘Undesired’ was awarded Pictures of the Year International for Multimedia- Issue Reporting and it was featured at Visa Pour L’image, the international festival of photojournalism at Perpignan and on MSNBC.com.
Role: Reporter, Videographer, Associate Producer, for “Undesired” & Author of Mothers of 100 Sons: India’s Dying Daughters.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen was one of the first to sound the alarm about Asia’s ‘missing women’. He read my article and said it was, “very well written.”
