Dainik Bhaskar wins Wan-Ifra Young Reader prize

Dainik Bhaskar is the only Indian publisher to win the award this year.

The ‘Ek Ped Ek Zindagi’ (One Tree, One Life) campaign was run across 34 cities with an aim to motivate people to plant at least one sapling in their name and take care to nurture it until it becomes a fully-grown tree. Under the initiative, special emphasis was given to promote awareness among schoolchildren about the value and environmental importance of planting native trees and medicinal plants.

Total 2.5 million saplings were planted across 14 states involving more than one million children, who were able to name their trees, thereby ensuring their sustainability.

Praising the initiative, the jury said, “While it may be impossible for other news publishers to match the massive numbers from India, this environ-friendly project offers good ideas that can be used anywhere on how to engage young people and work with them to make a meaningful and positive impact in their communities in ways that naturally resonate.”

Girish Agarwaal, director, Dainik Bhaskar, said, “It gives us immense pleasure to be recognized amongst the world’s best media initiatives focused towards youth engagement. It is a matter of pride and it will provide impetus to our efforts towards delivering differentiated content for our readers. We are more than happy to see our reader-centric initiatives not only being appreciated by our readers but also winning awards at different national and international forums.

Wan-Ifra World Young Reader Prize honours excellence in news publisher engagement of the youth in all ways on all platforms. The Public Service category honours a civic engagement project in areas such as environment, literacy, youth civic involvement, etc.

The World Young Reader Prizes are part of Wan-Ifra’s efforts to recognise, encourage and disseminate innovative ideas and thinking to help build a stronger and vital news media.

The prizes will be awarded on 1 December 2016 at the Newseum, the interactive museum in Washington DC dedicated to free expression.