Dainik Bhaskar wins WANIFRA Young Reader prize

Dainik Bhaskar won the WAN-IFRA(World Association of Newspapers and News publishers) World Young Reader Prize, Special Mention award for 2016 in the Public Service category for ‘Ek Ped Ek Zindagi’ (One Tree, One Life initiative). Dainik Bhaskar is the only Indian publisher to win the award this year.

WAN-IFRA’s World Young Reader Prize honors excellence in news publisher engagement of the youth in all ways on all platforms. The Public Service category honors a civic engagement project in areas such as the environment, literacy, youth civic involvement, etc. The World Young Reader Prizes are part of WAN-IFRA’s efforts to recognize, encourage and disseminate innovative ideas and thinking to help build stronger and vital news media. World Young Reader Prize-winning strategies are celebrated and shared as they benefit not only the media companies and their young audiences but also society as a whole.

Dainik Bhaskar Group’s ‘Ek Ped Ek Zindagi’ (One Tree, One Life) campaign was run across 34 cities with an objective to motivate people to plant at least one sapling in their name and take care to nurture it till it becomes a fully grown tree. Under the aegis of this initiative, special emphasis was given to promote awareness among school children about the value and environmental importance of planting native trees and medicinal plants. 2.5 million saplings were planted across 14 states with an involvement of more than 1 million children, who were able to name and personalise their trees, thereby ensuring their sustainability.

Praising the initiative, the jury said “While it may be impossible for other news publishers to match the massive numbers from India, this environ-friendly project offers good ideas that can be used anywhere on how to engage young people and work with them to make a meaningful and positive impact in their communities in ways that naturally resonate”.

On this occasion, Girish Agarwal, Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group said “It gives us immense pleasure to be recognized amongst the world’s best media initiatives focused towards youth engagement. It is a matter of pride and will provide impetus to our efforts towards delivering differentiated content for our readers sustainably. We are more than happy to see our reader-centric initiatives not only getting appreciated by our readers but also winning awards at different national and international forums”.

The prizes will be awarded on December 1^st, 2016 at the Newseum, the interactive museum in Washington, D.C. dedicated to free expression and the five freedoms of the U.S. First Amendment: Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly and Petition.  Dainik Bhaskar has also been invited to an International strategic round-table on youth engagement and news literacy.