Sanskriti Award for scribe

The Sanskriti Award for journalism was presented to Anahita Mukherji at New Delhi’s India International Centre on November 26, 2010. Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development was the chief guest. The 27-year-old special correspondent with The Times of India (TOI) Bombay edition was the youngest among the five recipients of the prestigious award this year. Each of the awardees — in the fields of literature, journalism, art, dance and outstanding social achievement — received a citation and a cash award of Rs 50,000.

Anahita Mukherji (right) receiving Sanskriti Award from Ashok Vajpeyi

Mukherji, who has covered the education beat at TOI for the past five years, "developed a deep desire to influence people’s lives through her writing and highlight the inequity that exists in the education system of our country” while yet doing a postgraduate diploma in social communications media, notes the Sanskriti brochure. "She highlights the stark inequality in the education system, and the contrast between the schools for the rich and the poor... She has focused on cases of land grab in civic schools, with instances where international schools have usurped school land as well as numerous cases where politicians, private schools and NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) have set up shop inside deserted schools... She has extensively analyzed the delay in passing the Right to Education Act as well as the hurdles in the path to universalizing education,” the brochure lists.

Aimed at inspiring and honoring young talent in the 25-35 years age group, the Sanskriti Awards were instituted by the Sanskriti Pratishthan in 1979, notes Ashok Vajpeyi, chairman of the awards committee of the Pratishthan who avers that they have become "one of the most coveted awards in the country.”

Striving for excellence runs in Mukherji’s family. Her mother Aban and grandmother Pareen Lalkaka are both educationists and published authors, with the latter’s book for children, Zarathushtra, the Golden Star having been recently reprinted by the World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust Funds for free distribution to members of the community. Aban’s book Soonamai Desai of Navsari, the autobiographical and biographical account of a remarkable woman of her times has been published by the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute. She has also contributed a chapter to Peonies and Pagodas, a book on Parsi textiles brought out by the Tapi Collection of Surat. Mukherji’s grandfather, Dr Kaikhushru Lalkaka was reportedly the country’s first qualified psychiatrist.