Mumbai: Dainik Bhaskar Newspaper group journalist Anand Choudhary has been felicitated with the Ramnath Goenka Award for his story on human/child trafficking in rural Rajasthan where kids were being sold as labour for factories. The Group’s reporter and their team of photographers & others spent over 15 months on this story that exposed a human-trafficking network that thrived across three tribal districts of Rajasthan adjacent to the Gujarat border.
This story was rigorously investigated by the Dainik Bhaskar Group’s team to ensure continued follow up and directly managed to save the life of over 120 kids. As a direct result of the story, a special investigation unit for child and women Crime was established at every police district in the state. Following the expose, the Rajasthan Police started a special drive on January 1, 2020 and has rescued more than 1,000 children so far. In this instance, the story resulted in a special cell being created for the first time in Rajasthan, where this racket flourished.
Anand Choudhary, while accepting the award commented “Dainik Bhaskar has created the right environment in which we are able to flourish and spend meaningful time at ground zero, not only following up on the story, but also taking it to its logical conclusion. I am proud to be associated with such an organization and humbly accept the award. This accolade is an added joy to the lives of the children that we were able to save and hopefully the countless more lives that will get saved with our story.”
