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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scroll journalist Rokibuz Zaman won the 2025 Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in the English-language web news report category. The award recognised his report about a Guwahati DJ whose family held her captive to prevent her from marrying a Kashmiri Muslim man.
What report did the award recognise?
Scroll announced the award on November 19, 2025, identifying Zaman as the winner in the English-language web news report category. The recognised story concerned a DJ from Guwahati and her family’s efforts to stop her inter-faith marriage. Scroll’s announcement described the woman as having been held captive by her family.
According to Scroll’s account of the report, her partner made multiple complaints, but police forces in Assam, Maharashtra and Meghalaya did not file an FIR against her family. That is Scroll’s description of the events and police response; it should not be read as an independently verified finding here.
Why was Zaman’s work selected?
The award citation said the report was recognised for “spotlighting a chilling case of family control and police apathy in obstructing an inter-faith marriage, and for foregrounding the urgent need to uphold women’s agency and choice”. The citation’s stated rationale places the story’s significance in the tension between family control, the police response described in the report and a woman’s right to make choices about marriage.
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What is the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity?
Scroll says Population First instituted the Laadli Media Award in 2007 to recognise media and advertising work that highlights gender sensitivity. It also describes Population First as a nonprofit supported by UNFPA. Scroll’s award report provides this background.
Population First describes the programme as recognising work that highlights gender concerns, with regional and national award events in each edition. Its archive labels the 2025 national edition the 15th Nationals; that is the programme’s designation for the edition, distinct from Zaman’s specific award category. Population First’s awards page
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