The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Sukanya Shantha, a journalist with The Wire, is one of the three recipients of the prestigious Padmashri Daya Pawar Memorial Award.
The award is given every year to those with outstanding contributions to the fields of social justice and the arts in Maharashtra. It is named after Daya Pawar, the seminal Maharashtrian author whose 1978 Marathi novel Baluta is considered path-breaking work when it comes to representing the realities of Dalit people in Indian society. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1990. The award in his name has been given for the past 26 years.
Also awarded at the same ceremony were senior writers Shahu Patole and Ashalata Kamble. The ‘Baluta’ award, given by Granthali Publications, was presented to Arun Subane, author of the autobiography Suryaghilani Mi. The award ceremony took place on October 20, in Mumbai.
Recipients of the Daya Pawar Memorial Award. (From left – Shahu Patole, Sukanya Shantha, Prof. Ashalata Kamble, program chair Sambhaji Bhagat, Hira Daya Pawar, chairperson of the Daya Pawar Foundation, and Baluta award recipient Arun Subane). Photo: Aniket Upsham
Shantha had weeks ago been lauded by the Supreme Court for her investigation into and report on the prevalence of caste in the assignment of labour in Indian prisons. Her in-depth article on caste in Indian prisons, ‘From Segregation to Labour, Manu’s Caste Law Governs the Indian Prison System‘ had formed the basis of her petition in the highest court. The apex court on October 3, delivered a historic verdict ordering the abolition of this practice.
The citation for the award notes Shantha’s “remarkable work.” Shantha has written extensively on prisons and unjust practices within and without, based on caste lines.
“A lot has been written about prisons so far. Descriptions of prisons by political prisoners have become quite famous, yet caste is never mentioned. Every year, the mention of caste in prisons appears only in the National Crime Records, yet no steps are taken in that regard,” Shantha said in her acceptance speech.
In 2021, Shantha won the Asian College of Journalism’s 2020 K P Narayana Kumar Memorial Award for Social Impact Journalism for the same report on caste-based segregation in prisons. The article had also won the prestigious Fetisov Journalism Award in the ‘Contribution to Civil Rights’ category in 2022.
Sambhaji Bhagat, cultural activist and balladeer, who delivered the presidential speech for the award, noted that it is important and necessary to strive for cultural power in order to save the constitution.