Veteran votary of women?s television Jai Chandiram loses battle with cancer

NEW DELHI: Former deputy director general of Doordarshan and a veteran in educational television Jai Chandiram died this morning aged 75.

She had been battling cancer of the colon for some months. Chandiram is survived by her brother and two sisters.

Less than a fortnight before she passed away, Chandiram was awarded the lifetime achievement award by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT), whose Indian chapter she headed for many years. The IAWRT annually organised a film festival to coincide with the International Women?s Day.

Chandiram was among the first women on Indian television and the IAWRT?s first Asian president. Her eclectic career included a stint as a part-time actor and inspired a whole generation of professional media women. She was also a champion for women?s rights.
She joined Doordarshan around 52 years ago, and later served as head of the television department of the Central Institute of Education of the National Council for Educational Research and Training. She also headed the department of television at the Film and Television Institute at Pune.

Later, she was head of the Fortune Institute of Information and Television (FICT), and also advisor to the Delhi International Arts Festival.

Chandiram received her Masters Degree from the School of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida, Gainesville.

She started her career as a producer in Doordarshan and her experience in media covered production, training and management. Her main area of work has been on children, education, distance learning, gender and developmental issues.

She was television consultant at the Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting and Development, (AIBD), Kuala Lumpur. During this period she provided training to the broadcasting organisations in the Asia Pacific region. The audio video resource kit, on gender, ?Into Focus, Changing Media Images of Women in Asia," was a path breaker and continues to be widely used in many countries.
She headed many media centres including the Educational Media Production Center of Indira Gandhi National Open University (EMPC-IGNOU) and she was executive director media at the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts (IGNCA).

She was also an advisor to the Government of Andhra Pradesh for the bouquet of educational channels named Mana TV.

At Doordarshan she was Director of Doordarshan Delhi, Ahmedabad, Central Production Centre. She started the third Channel of Doordarshan, which concentrated, on the arts. She retired from Doordarshan as Deputy Director General.

She had been a jury member for many national and international organizations, including NHK (Japan), and IAWRT Awards. She has also been a jury member at the national level for many organizations.

She had also been on the media advisory and task forces for various Ministries and organizations, dealing with, Family Welfare, Health, HIV-AIDS, Leprosy, Biodiversity, etc. She is the examiner for the Jamia Millia Institute for Mass Communication 2003-05, the Commonwealth of Learning Consultant and trainer for National Institute of Teachers (NIT) and NOUN, Nigeria.

She was the trainer Consultant to the Princess Diana Leprosy Mission Trust and holds workshops for NGO?s.