The Wire’s Series on Indian Fisherwomen Wins 2024 ACJ Award for Social Impact Journalism

New Delhi: The Wire’s five-part multimedia series “Breaking the Nets: An Oral History of India’s Fisherwomen” has been awarded the 2024 K.P. Narayana Kumar Memorial Award for Social Impact Journalism by the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), recognising its powerful storytelling and focus on marginalised voices.

The award was presented during the ACJ Awards ceremony held on May 3 at the college’s campus in Chennai. ACJ noted that the series – reported by Shamsheer Yousaf, Monica Jha and Sriram Vittalamurthy – “documents the struggles as well as the triumphs of India’s fisher women.” 

The citation praised the series as “visually rich and well narrated,” commending how it “highlights the grit of the women who have battled all odds to earn a livelihood and lead a life of dignity.”

“Breaking the Nets” sheds light on the often invisible labour of over 12.3 million women engaged in India’s fishing sector. Through oral histories and immersive multimedia reportage, the series chronicles stories of resilience across six Indian regions, including the Sundarbans, Gulf of Mannar, Odisha, Puducherry, Mumbai, and Bihar.

Among the narratives featured are that of Urmila Sardar, who continues fishing in the Sundarbans despite the trauma of losing her husband to a tiger; Namma Thayi, an 80-year-old seaweed diver from Tamil Nadu; Vedavalli, who challenged a caste panchayat in Puducherry; and Chandrakala Devi from Bihar, who, along with other women from the Mallah community, reclaimed village fish ponds from upper-caste landlords who had enslaved them.

The series not only brings forth the everyday struggles of fisherwomen but also underscores their collective efforts to assert rights, access public spaces and challenge patriarchal and caste hierarchies. It calls attention to how government policies have failed to formally acknowledge their labour in the fishing economy.

This year, the Social Impact Journalism Award was jointly awarded to The Wire’s team and journalist Vandana Menon for her story on Rajasthan’s pension-deprived elderly, published in ThePrint. 

“Breaking the Nets” has also been shortlisted in two categories – the Journalism Prize and the Opening Up Prize (public vote)—at the New Media Writing Prize. As part of this recognition, the series will be archived by the British Library. The final winners of the international prize will be announced on May 14.

The ACJ Awards jury comprised Kalpana Sharma, veteran journalist and columnist; Priya M. Menon, independent journalist and journalism advisor; and Harikrishna Katragadda, documentary photographer and visual artist. 

This year, the awards received 240 entries from 101 organisations in four languages.

Read the series here.