Neha Dixit Explained

Neha Dixit
Nationality:Indian
Alma Mater:Miranda House, Jamia Millia Islamia
Occupation:Journalist, Author

Neha Dixit is an Indian freelance journalist covering politics, gender and social justice.[1] She has been awarded over a dozen awards including the Chameli Devi Jain Award (2016) as well as CPJ International Press Freedom Award (2019).[2]

Early life

Neha attended school in Lucknow, and graduated in English Literature from Miranda House, University of Delhi. Thereafter, she pursued a Masters in Convergent Journalism from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Milia Islamia in New Delhi.[3]

Career

Neha began her career as an investigative journalist with Tehelka, before switching to the Special Investigation Team of India Today. Since 2012, she has been a freelancer.[4] Her works have been published in The Wire, Al Jazeera, Outlook, The New York Times, The Caravan, Himal Southasian, and The Washington Post among others.[5]

Notable reports and awards

In August 2014, Dixit detailed the circumstances faced by seven rape survivors of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. This won her the 2014 Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism and the 2015 Press Institute of India-Red Cross award.

In 2016, Dixit chronicled (for Outlook) the abduction of 31 girls from Assam by a Hindu nationalist organization to infuse them with "nationalist ideologies" — a criminal defamation suit was subsequently filed against Dixit, in what was condemned by Committee to Protect Journalists as a tool of intimidation. The same year, she was conferred with the Chameli Devi Jain Award, the highest honor for women journalists in India: her meticulous nature of coverage and cross-checking of involved facts were admired in particular.

In 2018, she reported on poor Indians, who were unethically drawn into participating in illegal drug-trials by pharma giants. In 2019, Dixit documented a range of extrajudicial killings by police forces in Uttar Pradesh and other states, getting threats from high-ranked police officials, in the process. Her reports prompted a note of concern by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.[6] The same year, she received the CPJ International Press Freedom Award.

She has been recognised as one of the most credible Indian journalists in India because of her painstaking in-depth ground, intersectional reporting that steers clear of binary, opinionated, formulaic mainstream coverage of news.

She has been a visiting faculty at Ashoka University, MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia University, NALSAR, Hyderabad, IIMC and others.

Books

In 2016, Neha was one of the first Indian journalists to use a graphic format for reportage. She contributed a story "The Girl Not from Madras" to the comic book anthology 'First Hand: Graphic Non-fiction from India', about the exploitation of women in India.[7] [8]

She contributed a chapter on Sexual violence during sectarian violence in India to 'Breaching the Citadel, an anthology of sexual violence in South Asia 2016 by Zubaan Books.[9]

She wrote the piece, 'Outcast[e]/Outlawed: The Bandit Queen (1996)' for the book ‘Bad’ Women of Bombay Films: Studies in Desire and Anxiety published by Palgrave Macmillan. Details the history of desire and anxiety underlying the cinematic representation of the modern Indian woman.https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-26788-9

The Many Lives of Syeda X: The Story of an Unknown Indian

On August 14, 2024, Dixit's first non-fiction book, 'The Many Lives of Syeda X: The Story of an Unknown Indian' published by Juggernaut Books was launched in Delhi.[10] The book looks at the last three decades of Indian socio-political and economic turmoil through the eyes of an urban poor, migrant, working-class woman and her family.

She received the New India Fellowship in 2017 for this book driven by long research and narrative journalism. It tells the story of an impoverished Muslim migrant family in India’s capital, negotiating the pitfalls of politics and economic servitude, holding up a mirror to the shadows behind the sheen of “New India.” [11]

Priya Ramani wrote that it is 'the invisible India book everyone must read.'[12]

Ruben Banerjee wrote in The Federal that 'The story that Dixit ends up writing is a paean to the grit and gumption of the untold millions adrift on despair in urban India, narrated without condescension. The book is also as much a testimony to the author’s bottomless commitment to narrate and document real stories of a mass of real and unsung people that should really matter. [13]

Soutik Biswas writes in the BBC: "Ms Dixit’s book shines a spotlight on the invisible lives of India’s neglected female home-based workers."[14]

Personal life

Dixit is married to Nakul Singh Sawhney, an Indian documentary filmmaker.[15]

Dixit has been charged with "inciting hatred" by the Government of India, a move that has been criticized by the Committee to Protect Journalists.[16] Because of her reporting, she has been subjected to threatening calls and an attempted acid attack and a break attempt in her house.[17]

YearAward
2020 One Young World Journalist of the Year
2019 International Press Freedom Award 2019, Committee To Protect Journalists
2019 23rd Human Rights Press Awards, Hong Kong Press Association
2019 Special Mention, ACJ Award for Investigative Journalism
2017 Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Journalist
2015 PII-ICRC Award for Best report on Humanitarian Subject
2014 Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism
2013 UNFPA-Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity. Best Investigative Feature
2013 Trust Women Honorary Journalist of the Year, Thomson Reuters Foundation
2013 Thomson Foundation-Foreign Press Association Young Journalist Award
2012 Best TV News reporter, News Television Awards
2011 Lorenzo Natali Prize for Journalism, Asia-Pacific Region
2010 News Television Award for Best Investigative Feature
2010 UNFPA-Laadli Media Award for Best Investigative Feature
2009 Anupama Jayaraman Memorial Award for Young Women Journalists

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Neha Dixit, India. 2021-09-11. Committee to Protect Journalists. en-US.
  2. Web site: Faculty/Staff. 2021-09-11. Ashoka University. en.
  3. http://twocircles.net/2015dec01/1448932541.html#.V1t_PeRHMy4 "Neha Dixit wins Red Cross award for writing on women raped during 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots"
  4. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sandip-roy/two-girls-in-a-tree-why-t_b_5446655.html "Two Girls in a Tree: Why the Indian Rape Photos Are Inexcusable"
  5. Web site: Neha Dixit Wins Chameli Devi Award for Outstanding Woman Journalist for 2016. 2021-09-11. The Wire.
  6. Web site: UN Rights Body 'Extremely Concerned' About Fake Encounters in Yogi Adityanath's UP. 2021-09-11. The Wire.
  7. http://www.euronews.com/newswires/3205435-comic-book-sheds-light-on-untold-stories-of-trafficking-poverty-and-prejudice-in-india/ "Comic book sheds light on untold stories of trafficking, poverty and prejudice in India"
  8. http://www.hindustantimes.com/books/one-of-a-kind-graphic-anthology-on-contemporary-india/story-QCzE68ikmyObp7tLGO8NcJ.html "One-of-a-kind graphic anthology on contemporary India"
  9. Web site: Zubaan- Feminist Independent Publishing . en-US . 2019-04-10.
  10. https://theprint.in/feature/around-town/new-book-sees-delhi-not-through-the-eyes-of-its-rulers-but-35000-workers-who-come-every-day/2231335/
  11. News: 50 jobs, 30 years: The unseen labour of an Indian female worker. Soutik. Biswas. bbc.com. BBC. 1 August 2024. 2 August 2024.
  12. https://www.ndtvprofit.com/opinion/the-invisible-india-book-everyone-must-read
  13. https://thefederal.com/category/features/the-many-lives-of-syeda-x-review-a-powerful-portrait-of-indias-hapless-migrants-helpless-poor-138286
  14. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck7g9kjdrpmo
  15. Web site: RSF Demands Police Protection for Journalist Neha Dixit. 2021-09-15. The Wire.
  16. Web site: CPJ condemns criminal complaint filed against Outlook magazine and journalist Neha Dixit . 12 August 2016 .
  17. Web site: Indian journalist Neha Dixit receives threatening calls, break-in attempt . 27 January 2021 .