Manju Latha Kalanidhi is an Indian journalist, feature writer, columnist and creator of Rice Bucket Challenge. She is currently the City Editor at ''

The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naidu ...

'' in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

Early life

Manju Latha Kalanidhi, studied in St. Ann's School in

Kazipet Kazipet is the major educational and transport hub in Hanumakonda district in the Indian state of Telangana. It is about 12 KM away from Warangal It is one of the tri-city along with Warangal and Hanmakonda. Kazipet railway station is one of t ...

Warangal Warangal () is a city in the Indian state of Telangana and the district headquarters of Warangal district. It is the second largest city in Telangana with a population of 811,844 per 2011 Census of India, and spreading over an . Warangal serv ...

. She has obtained her post-graduate diploma in Journalism from

Asian College of Journalism The Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) is a journalism school in Chennai, India, which offers postgraduate diploma courses in journalism. History Asian College of Journalism, Chennai was founded in Bangalore as the Asian School of Journalism, B ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Career

Manjulatha started her career as a journalist in

Deccan Chronicle ''Deccan Chronicle'' is an English-language daily newspaper based in Hyderabad, India. Founded in 1938, it was initially launched as a Weekly newspaper, weekly and later converted into a daily. The newspaper's name reflects its origins in the ...

, a Hyderabad-based largest circulated daily English newspaper. She worked there for six years and then joined as an editor in Big Hyderabad. She also worked in WOW! Hyderabad, a lifestyle magazine published by Dr Reddy's Foundation. She also worked in an online media house, Progressive Digital Media. Later, she joined as features editor in English daily The Hans India, where she used to handle daily and weekly features. She also led Young Hans, an educational supplement of The Hans India. She worked for Oryza.com, a web-based rice research journal, where the idea of rice bucket challenge crossed her mind. Later, she took up a full-time assignment in ''The New Indian Express''. As part of her job in Oryza.com, she had to do a lot of research on rice crop. She studied a lot of stories on hunger and rice. Inspired by the popular

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, is an activity involving the pouring of a bucket of ice water over a person's head, either by another person or self-administered, to promote awareness of the disease amyo ...

, Manju wanted to give a human touch to it and kick-started the Rice Bucket Challenge that touched several lives. She donated a bucket full of rice to a daily wage-earner who sells idli/dosa (snacks in Indian breakfast) on a bicycle. She posted a photograph of it on her Facebook wall and tagged some of her friends and challenged them to continue it. She has chosen this because rice is the staple food in many parts of India and also the world. This would satiate the hunger of several millions of hungry stomachs, especially those who cannot make their ends meet. Thousands of people in India and abroad took up the challenge and actively participated in it. A lot of corporate houses, private organizations, educational institutions and individuals actively took part in the campaign and donated generously.

Awards

An International Confederation of United Nations and NGOs (iCONGOs)

Karmaveer Chakra Award The Karmaveer Chakra Award is a global civilian honor bestowed to individuals worldwide for their unwavering bravery by the International Confederation of Non governmental Organizations (iCONGO) in collaboration with the United Nations Karmaveer C ...

and REX Karmaveer Global Fellowship In 2020 she was awarded the Commonwealth Points of Light Award for her voluntary service during the

COVID-19 pandemic in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). As of , according to Indian government ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalanidhi, Manju Latha Living people Indian women editors Year of birth missing (living people) Indian women columnists Indian editors Indian columnists Writers from Hyderabad, India People from Warangal Journalists from Telangana Women writers from Telangana