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Thursday, February 21, 2008

UNFPA-Laadli National Creative Excellence Awards for Social Change

Population First, a Mumbai based NGO working on population and health issues within the framework of women's rights and social development has announced the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) - Laadli National Creative Excellence Awards for Social Change.

It is a nationwide contest aiming to create a pool of promotional material that could be used for the campaign against sex selection, by stakeholders working on the issue. Entries are invited from Advertising professionals, Creative professionals (from any organization), Freelance individuals, NGOs, Art & Design students/faculty, and others who are simply creative and believe in the cause.

The last date to receive entries has been further extended to 31st March 2008

The awards will be given across Seven Categories:

1) Story Boards of TVCs/Films/Animation Films

2) Slogans/Lyrics/Songs

3) Print Ads/Cartoons

4) Campaign Ideas

5) Posters/ Outdoor media

6) Photography

7) Innovative merchandising materials

All entries received, would be uploaded on a web based free open communication source, dealing with the issue of sex selection. The campaign materials received and uploaded, will then be freely downloadable, customizable/modifiable, keeping it mandatory for users to register before using the same and acknowledging the original creator/maker of the creative, wherever/whenever used.

Our aim is to spread awareness on the issue of sex selection and foeticide among people. It is a growing concern for India not only in villages but in urban areas as well. Therefore, by keeping the UNFPA- Laadli NCEA open to all, we intend creating a people's movement against the practice of sex selection, providing communication support to ongoing campaigns on the issue.

Population First will handover a token honorarium to the selected few and a certificate each to entries included on the website. The last date for receiving entries to the contest is 31st March, 2008.

About Population First's Laadli Campaign:
Laadli - A Girl Child Campaign by Population First addresses an important social issue - the bias against the girl child which makes her unwelcome in many families. She is not even allowed to be born because of the misuse of diagnostic techniques. The result is that the sex ratio is falling at an alarming rate all over the country and sex selection is assuming genocide proportions. 33 million women are missing from India's population, and as per estimates, in the next five years about one million female foetuses will be aborted each year! Laadli aims to break the silence and help make pre-birth sex selection a public issue and not let it remain a personal matter.

Across the country, a large number of districts were witness to the phenomena of dwindling number of girls in the population. In 2001, the number of districts with a sex ratio of less than 800 girls per 1000 boys was 14 as compared to 0 districts in 1991. The number of districts with a sex ratio in the range 800 to 849 increased from 1 district to 32 districts in the same decade. Delhi, the political capital of India and Mumbai the commercial capital of the country, have 0 to 6 sex ratios much below the national ratio of 927, which in itself is low. Delhi has a sex ratio of 865 and Mumbai 898. Mumbai had recorded a fall of 32 points in the last decade from 930 girls per 1000 boys in 1991 to 898 girls per 1000 boys in 2001. An alarming situation, it calls for immediate action on the issue. It needs to become a people's movement given the political & bureaucratic indifference to the dwindling female population.

For further details, contact Saipriya Paranjape at 09869173095 or call 022 2262 6672/6676

Submit your entries on www.creative-excellence.org

E mail creative.excellence@populationfirst.org

Visit www.populationfirst.org


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