Tinka Tinka India Awards 2022: Exclusive National Awards For Jail Inmates And The Staff

By Pavani Chandhok

Tinka Tinka Foundation is all set to announce results for the Tinka Tinka India and Tinka Tinka Bandini Awards for the year 2022. These will be announced on the eve of Human Rights Day, This is the 8th year of these national awards. This year over 600 entries were received by the Foundation, including few from transgender inmates as well. Tinka Tinka India and Tinka Tinka Bandini Awards are the exclusive national awards dedicated to prison, honouring both inmates and the jail officials for their significant contribution.

With the theme ‘Newspapers in Jails’, Tinka Tinka Foundation had invited entries under 4 categories, namely Painting, Special Mention, Prison Administration and Bandini Awards.

Dr. A.P. Maheshwari, IPS (retd.) Former DG, BPR&D, Sanjay Chaudhary, IPS (retd.), Former DG, Prisons & Correctional Services, Madhya Pradesh and Dr. Vartika Nanda, Founder, Tinka Tinka Foundation were the members of the jury.

Background:

Dr. Vartika Nanda is the Founder of Tinka Tinka Foundation, a movement on jails, to help in the reformation of inmates and improve prison life. Her domain expertise lies in her work in the field of prison reforms and journalism. With her experience of the industry and the academia, she has dedicated her life to the cause of prison reforms. She is the recipient of Stri Shaktee Puraskar, highest civilian honor for women empowerment in India, conferred upon her in 2014 by the President of India for her contribution in media & literature. Her name has been included twice in Limca Book of Records (2015 and 2017) for introducing innovative concepts related to creative expressions of inmates in the field of prison reforms. Her action oriented research on prisons was also taken into cognizance by the Supreme Court of India in 2018 in the matter of “Inhuman conditions in 1382 prisons”.

Dr. Vartika Nanda is also credited to conceptualise, train and execute prison radio in District Jail Agra, Jails of Haryana and Uttarakhand. Tinka Jail Radio is the only podcast in India dedicated to prison reforms. Three books under Tinka Tinka are considered to be masterpieces on prison life, which are a culmination of continuous engagement with prisons.