I am an independent journalist based out of New Delhi, India. I have 18 years of experience in long form, investigative reportage with a focus on intersections of gender, politics, and social justice, in multiple mediums including online, print, and television in South Asia.
I have been a contributing reporter for Al Jazeera, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Smithsonian, Foreign Policy, Caravan, The National, The Wire and others.
Books:
The Many Lives of Syeda X: The Story of an Unknown Indian
The Many Lives of Syeda X: The story of an unknown Indian. Juggernaut Books on July 31st, 2024 in South Asia/Bonnier Books onApril 24th, 2025, in Commonwealth.
The book looks at the last 30 years of India through the eyes of a working-class, migrant Muslim woman in Delhi who becomes a part ofthe cheap female labor economy and works over fifty different jobs in three decades without once getting paid a minimum wage.Researched for close to a decade, it is a portal to a messy world hidden away from elite Indians. It is the story of untold millions and asearing account of urban life in New India.It has been translated now in four languages: Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi.
The book was selected as the book of the year 2024 by The Hindu and the Deccan Herald. I won the Ramnath Goenka Sahitya Samman award, 2025 and Kalinga Literary best debutaward, 2025 for this book. The book also received an Honorable Mention by the CG Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing in 2026.
Awards:
Honorable Mention, CG Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing, 2026
Ramnath Goenka Sahitya Samman Award, Best Debut, 2025
Best Debut Book (English), Kalinga Literary Festival Award, 2025.
One Young World’s Journalist of the Year award, 2020
International Press Freedom Award 2019, Committee To Protect Journalists
Merit, 23rd Human Rights Press Awards, Hong Kong Press Association 2019
Special Mention, ACJ Award for Investigative Journalism 2019
Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Journalist 2016
PII-ICRC Award for Best report on Humanitarian Subject 2015
Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism 2014
UNFPA-Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity. Best Investigative Feature 2012-13
Trust Women Honorary Journalist of the Year 2013, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Thomson Foundation-Foreign Press Association Young Journalist Award 2013
Best TV News reporter, News Television Awards, 2011-2012
Lorenzo Natali Prize for Journalism, 2011, Asia-Pacific Region
News Television Award for Best Investigative Feature 2010-2011
UNFPA-Laadli Media Award for Best Investigative Feature 2009-2010
Anupama Jayaraman Memorial Award for Young Women Journalists 2009
Fellowships:
Pen America World Press Freedom Fellowship 2019
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Fellowship 2018
New India Fellowship 2017
ICFJ-Knight Fellowship on Gender Journalism 2017
Appan Menon Memorial Trust Fellowship 2016
One World South Asia-Poshan fellowship for 2013 to cover malnutrition
Fellow for the World Press Institute 2012 to cover the US Presidential election campaign
Contributor:
“Colorism and Skin Color Stratification.” Chapter in Tanya Golash-Boza, ed. Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach, Third Edition,Oxford University Press, 2021
“Outcast(e)/Outlawed: Bandit Queen 1996” in Sengupta, Roy, and Purkayastha eds. ‘Bad’ Women of Bombay Films : Studies in Desireand Anxiety. Palgrave Macmillan. 2019.
“The Cost of a Runaway Marriage.” In Sathya Saran, ed. Knot For Keeps: Writing the Modern Marriage. Harper Collins, 2018
“Journalism is Not Good for Women from Reputed Families,” Chapter in #JournalistsToo, a UNESCO volume on harassment andthreats faced by female journalists, 2018
“Visible and Invisible: Sexual Violence in Muzaffarnagar,” in Butalia and Murthy, eds. Breaching the Citadel, an anthology of essays onsexual violence in South Asia, Zubaan, 2018
“Shadow Lines-Survivors of Mass Communal Violence in Muzaffarnagar”and “The Girl Not From Madras” in Vidyun Sabhaney, Orijit Sen ed. First Hand: Graphic Non-Fiction from India, Volume 1 &2, Yodapress, 2015, 2017
“A Taliban of Our Very Own,” in UNESCO Casebook of Investigative Journalism, 2011
This website is largely an archive of my published work.For brickbats and otherwise, please email at [email protected]
Twitter: nehadixit123
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nehadixit123