The National Foundation for India has announced the 14th National Media Fellowship Programme. The Rs 1,00,000 lakh fellowships will be awarded to print journalists, including two that will be awarded for projects that focus on conditions in rural areas. The two grants for photojournalists are for ongoing projects of social importance.

This year fellowships will also be granted under three other categories. There will be a grant for print journalists from Rajasthan, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka who want to publish articles on malnutrition / food security and the millennium development goals which will be supported by the German NGO Welthungerhilfe. Fellowships, supported by the American India Foundation, will be awarded to print journalists who want to write about distress seasonal migration and the education of deprived children.

A fellowship, again supported by the American India Foundation, will also be awarded to a photojournalist who wants to do an essay on distress seasonal migration.

The fellowships are open to journalists working in any of the regional or national dailies as well as freelancers who are published frequently. The applicants must have five to seven years of professional experience and not be above 40 years of age. Out of the nine fellowships for print journalists, three would be awarded to journalists working in an Indian language newspaper.

Those interested should apply latest by September 15, 2008, to the programme officer-media fellowships programme, the National Foundation for India, Zone IV A, upper ground floor, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003. (phone: 011-24641864 / 5, 011-24648490 / 1 / 2; email: mandirakalaan@nfi.org.in).

The application can be submitted in English or any other Indian language but should be typed. Candidates need to send a curriculum vita, a 1,000-word proposal outlining the area of work and its relevance (plus a 10-15 images on the project in the case of photojournalists), clippings of five articles or photographs (with bylines), letter from the editor (freelancers should submit two letters from editors or media personalities familiar with their work) and two references with address and phone (or fax) numbers.