An Investigative Report Published in The Wire Wins Laadli Media Award 2025
New Delhi: An article published in The Wire by Vaivab Das has been awarded at the Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2025 held in Mumbai. The story was produced as part of the InQlusive Newsrooms Media Fellowship 2023 – a collaborative project by The News Minute and Queer Chennai Chronicles, supported by Google News Initiative. The Wire was one of the publishers of the report.
The article – titled ‘The Reality of India's Transgender Welfare Boards: What an RTI Investigation Reveals’ – won in the ‘Web - Investigative Story Category’ in the English regional and national categories.
The article is an investigative piece, which through RTIs, first-hand narratives from various transgender welfare board members, trans/queer rights activists, and judicial observations, reveals compelling reasons for India to shift away from nominal representations, and demand transformative reforms.
Vaivab Das is a PhD student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and a Fulbright Fellow at the University of California Berkeley. Their research delves into the intersections of gender, sexuality and law.
At the award ceremony, actor and theatre icon Lillete Dubey, who was chairing the function held at the Tata Theatre, NCPA no November 19, said, “Stories are how we remember who we are — and who we can become.”
The Laadli awards, held annually and 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.
Speaking about the media awards, Yogesh Pawar, Programme Director at Population First, said in his closing remarks, “Each of these journalists has wielded truth like a torch.”
“They’ve shown us that words can heal, challenge patriarchy, and change mindsets. Laadli is proud to stand beside them as they do so,” he said.
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