MUMBAI: The 15th National Laadli Media & Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity (LMAAGS) 2025 were held on November 19 at National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai, Maharashtra, where 97 journalists and communicators from across 14 states in the country were felicitated. The winning entries covered nine Indian languages.
Environment journalist Nidhi Jamwal received the 2025 Laadli Media Award (Regional) for her article on lessons on climate resilience from rural women, which was published in Kashmir Times, last March on International Women’s Day. The article won under Web Blog English category of the Laadli awards.
These annual awards, supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), honour journalists, filmmakers, and advertisers whose work dismantles stereotypes and centres the voices of women and gender-diverse communities. This year’s celebrations marked 15 years of partnership between Laadli and UNFPA, an alliance rooted in the belief that communication can drive gender justice.
“Each of these awardees reminds us that creativity, when anchored in conscience, can change the way the world thinks about women,” said actor and theatre icon Lillete Dubey who was chairing the awards ceremony. “Every story honoured here is an act of courage — a refusal to be silent in the face of inequality,” said Dr. A.L. Sharada, Founder-Trustee of Population First, the organisation behind the Laadli initiative.
Jamwal’s winning entry, The Village Classroom: Rural Indian Women Can Teach About Climate Resilience, Fight For Survival, describes the wealth of traditional ecological knowledge held by rural Indian women, highlighting how this wisdom forms the backbone of their community’s climate resilience.
Rural women, often living in the most climate-vulnerable areas such as flood-prone villages and remote forests, have accumulated generations of experience adapting to ecological challenges. Jamwal’s narrative foregrounds their role as custodians of indigenous crops like flood-compatible desariya dhan rice, knowledge about local protein sources such as freshwater snails, and sustainable farming practices that have evolved to cope with frequent floods and other climate shocks.
This knowledge allows them to sustain livelihoods even when men migrate for work, showcasing their resilience and adaptability in the face of extreme environmental adversity.
Rural Women as Climate Champions
In her article, Jamwal portrays these women not merely as victims of climate change but as active teachers and innovators. In her interactions, especially in villages like Sahorwa and Rasuiya in rural Bihar, the women serve as a “village classroom”, demonstrating climate-resilient agricultural techniques and crop varieties rather than conventional classroom education.
Their teachings challenge mainstream media narratives, which often frame rural women only as recipients of aid or as victims of violence, overlooking their leadership in ecological conservation and climate adaptation. Through Jamwal’s vivid descriptions, the readers see how these women embody living traditions that safeguard biodiversity and promote sustainable resource use.
The story also reveals the bias and systemic neglect that rural women face. Despite their pivotal knowledge and contributions, their expertise remains underrecognised in policy and media discourses on climate change and environmental conservation.
Jamwal points out the obstacles of class, caste, and gender discrimination that these women navigate daily, yet she emphasises their refusal to be sidelined. They stand as resilient repositories of traditional knowledge with insights that could contribute to broader solutions for climate adaptation, yet their voices are often marginalised.
The winning entry also captures the interconnectedness of ecological knowledge with cultural identity and community solidarity. The rural women’s understanding of indigenous seed varieties, organic farming methods, and natural resource management is deeply embedded within their social fabric.
This collective wisdom, transmitted orally and practically from generation to generation, not only supports local food security but also maintains ecological balance. Such knowledge systems, often sidelined in modern agricultural and climate policy, are crucial for creating sustainable and resilient rural economies.
The article, which won the Laadli Media Award 2025, is a compelling reminder that solutions to many complex climate challenges lie in these traditional practices and lived experiences. By recognising and uplifting the role of rural women as climate educators and ecological stewards, there emerges a powerful pathway to inclusive, ground-up climate resilience. Their knowledge offers valuable lessons in adaptation that have been tested in the harshest environments and can inspire sustainable responses to climate crises globally.
About The Laadli Media Awards 2024
The awards spanned journalism, advertising, film, OTT and literature, with over 97 professionals from 14 languages across India recognised for their gender-sensitive storytelling in nine languages.
This year as many as 719 journalism entries were received from which 609 were shortlisted and sent to the jury. Among the winning reports, those that stood out exposed gendered violence in digital spaces, stories of women’s resilience in rural economies, and explorations of inclusive narratives in science, cinema, and public policy.
“Good journalism doesn’t just inform; it transforms,” said veteran journalist Kalpana Sharma, who presented several awards during the evening as the chairperson of the regional awards event. “It is heartening to see so many young journalists work with a gender lens, asking difficult questions and making space for the silenced,” she said.
“Each of these journalists has wielded truth like a torch,” said Yogesh Pawar, Programme Director at Population First. “They’ve shown us that words can heal, challenge patriarchy, and change mindsets. Laadli is proud to stand beside them as they do so.”
The night’s most moving moments came during the presentation of the Special Laadli Awards where Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal received the Laadli Lifetime Achievement Award for her fearless use of theatre to confront patriarchy; Jyoti Mhapsekar, founder of Stree Mukti Sanghatana, was named Laadli Gender Champion for her decades of feminist activism; Indavi Tulpule, the Laadli Rural Feminist Awardee, was honoured for her work with rural women in Maharashtra; Veteran actor Sarita Joshi received the Laadli Theatre Award, while film editor Namrata Rao was named Laadli Woman Behind the Screen.
“These women are the heartbeat of Laadli’s vision — they have made art, activism, and empathy inseparable,” noted Anuja Gulati of UNFPA, adding that the partnership continues to “reclaim communication as a tool for justice and dignity.”
“Fifteen years on, Laadli continues to remind us that gender sensitivity isn’t just a moral imperative — it’s good storytelling,” said veteran adman K.V. Sridhar, who is also the Executive Trustee of Population First. “And good stories are what keep the world human.”
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