A resident of Shillong, Tridip K Mandal, a the Creative Head with The Quint, has been awarded the Ramnath Goenka Award in Journalism in ‘Uncovering India Invisible’ category for the documentary ‘Diaries from the Detention Camps of Assam’.
The award was announced in 2021 but the ceremony couldn’t be held because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ceremony for the same was held in New Delhi yesterday.
The documentary was shot in September 2019, soon after the final list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was announced. It follows the plight of people held at the Goalpara detention camp in Assam on suspicion of being illegal immigrants.
Mandal met with detainees and their families to understand and tell the story of what really goes on inside a detention camp.
“I am glad that the award is for a story that’s so close to my heart and very personal. I had to go through the whole NRC process, even my family members had to prove our Indian Citizenship, and in fact, my wife is still not in the NRC,” he told Highland Post.
“For this story, I didn’t need a source or lead because our family was the story. Although it’s a hyper-local story from Assam but identity, citizenship and migration are universal issues now,” he said.
Mandal feels connected to his roots in Northeast and is passionate about telling stories from the region. He said he is keen to bridge the so-called ‘tyranny of distance’ and give a voice to stories from the region, which many a time get dropped just because the perception is that the region is too far or the stories won’t find resonance across India.
