Hon. President of India, Sh. Pranab Mukherjee, Confers Rani Lakshimibai Award to ‘Spirit of Nirbhaya’
National ‘Stree Shakti Puruskar’ Conferred to Five Women Achievers

The Hon. President of India, Sh. Pranab Mukherjee today conferred the Rani Lakshmibai Award for 2012 to honour the ‘Spirit of Nirbhaya’. The Award is in recognition of the rising of millions of women and youth in the country for the cause of women and is presented to all of them. Symbolically it was received by the mother of ‘Nirbhaya’.

The Award citation reads – ‘We may call her Nirbhaya, Damini or Shakti; the braveheart from Delhi symbolizes the indomitable spirit of women. Her ordeal crystallized a spontaneous and collective awakening of public consciousness against injustice to women and inspired the nation to action. Today, we salute the spirit of Nirbhaya, and acknowledge the contribution of thousands of men, women, boys and girls who turned the dark hour into a momentous cry for justice and freedom for all women from violence. The ‘Spirit of Nirbhaya’ has kindled the flame of awareness on women’s rights to safety and security in the country. The ‘Spirit of Nirbhaya’ lives on. To acknowledge this awakening, the Rani Lakshmibai Award for 2012 honours the ‘Spirit of Nirbhaya’, symbolizing extraordinary courage, dignity in adversity and perseverance in the fight against injustice.” The award carries a citation, a scroll and a cheque of Rs. 3 lakhs.

Speaking at the occasion and congratulating the awardees, the Hon. President of India Sh. Pranab Mukherjee said that the awards are a recognition of their work. Recognising the spirit of Nirbhaya in the women of the country, the Hon. President said that she symbolizes the best in Indian youth and women. The Hon. President said that we must do everything to ensure that such incidents never happen again in future, provide a safe and secure at all times in our country and change negative perception towards women. The Hon. President expressed concern over the increasing incidents of violence against women and stated that equality for women has been provided in the Preamble, the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy within the Indian Constitution. The Hon. President expressed his happiness over the involvement of rural women in PRIs.

In addition to the Rani Lakshmibai Award, the Hon. President of India Sh. Pranab Mukherjee conferred Stree Shakti Puruskars to five women achievers. The Rani Rudramma Devi Award for the year 2012 was awarded to Smt. Pranita Talukdar from Assam. She was honoured for her commendable work for the overall development of women. Smt. Talukdar is an eminent social worker from Barpeta, Assam. She organises functions/seminars amongst women in Assam. She writes articles on women related issues and is also a member of Kamrup District Freedom Fighters Association and Sahitya Sabha, Guwahati.

Mata Jijabai Award for 2012 was given to Ms. Sonika Agarwal from Delhi in recognition of her commendable service in the areas of education and promotion of self help groups amongst women. Ms. Agarwal is a painter with over 15 solo and group shows to her credit. She has created SHGs for generating livelihood for women. Her work includes reviving handicrafts/ handlooms (19 SHGs, 308 Women). She also uses art and culture as a tool for social change. She is also associated with education and culture centre for children (30 boys and 40 girls) and Youth Welfare Programmes.

The Hon. President of India Sh. Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Kannagi Award for 2012 to Smt. Guramma H. Sankina from Karnataka. She was honoured for her commendable service in the areas of educational awareness, promotion of self help groups and income generating activities amongst women. Smt. Guramma is a child widow who has been working with nursery school students for over 35 years. She is also a poet and a singer. She is associated with formation of SHGs for income generating activities, conducting educational awareness through song and plays. She has also received various awards.

Smt. Omana T.K from Kerala received the Rani Gaidinliu Zeliang Award to honour her commendable service in the areas of rehabilitation of destitute women and victims of violence, environment protection, empowerment of women and women employment. Smt. Omana overcame social pressures and family resistance to initiate a life of social service. She is involved in rehabilitation of destitute women, widows, victims of violence and atrocities. She works for the empowerment of women; initiating income generation activities like mushroom cultivation, food preservation & animal husbandry; environment protection and health &nutrition programme for tribal children. She also provides training for capacity building and initiating action against dowry & atrocities against women. Through her efforts more than 20,000 families are associated with daily thrift savings and 5000 women have got employment through short training courses.

The Hon. President of India Sh. Pranab Mukherjee awarded Smt. Olga D’mello of Maharashtra with the Devi Ahilyabai Holkar award, 2012. The award recognizes her commendable work in the areas of health, hygiene awareness and creating consciousness on women’s issues in the community. Smt. Olga D’mello’s from a very young age has been working for providing education, awareness on hygiene, providing clothes to Adivasis, Dalit and local poor people. She also engaged the elders of the community on issues like family planning, anti-tobacco, anti-liquor efforts and participation in voting. She has also written books and is still working for social upliftment of tribal and poor.

Speaking at the function Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women and Child Development said that Women’s Day is to empower women not only in India, but the whole world. She elaborated on the initiatives and schemes of the Ministry for Women and Child Development to improve the health, security and educational status of women. She said that due to these efforts, the IMR and MMR have shown declining trend. The Minister said that to restructure and strengthen the ICDS scheme, the funds allocated in 12th Plan has gone up from Rs 1,23,580 crores from Rs. 44,4oo crores in the 11th Plan. She also spoke about the Saksham scheme of the Ministry to give training to adolescent boys to age group of 11-18 years so as to inculcate in them respect towards women and their mindset can be changed so as to be respectful towards women, and Ahimsa messengers who can work against violence against women, dowry, female feoticide.

Speaking at the function Sh. Prem Narain, Secretary, M/O WCD congratulated the awardees and said that “We have taken this opportunity to honour the awakening of the country towards women issues kindled by the mass rising of women and youth spirited by the Nirbhaya incident and a decision was taken on 27th February that one of the awards be given to the Spirit of Nirbhaya. This award is in recognition of the rising of millions of men, women, boys and girls in the country for the cause of women and is presented to all of them”.

He also said that gender equality is enshrined in the very heart of our Constitution which not only grants equality to women, but also mandates the State to take positive discrimination in favour of women. Our democratic polity ensures that various legislations, judicial institutions, statutory bodies, Commissions, and policies/programmes are aimed at the political, economic, social and cultural empowerment of women, he said. The Secretary stated that the Government has ratified various international conventions and human rights instruments to secure the rights for women and eliminating discrimination against them. He elaborated on schemes of the Ministry of WCD such as Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, and the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956.

The annual National Stree Shakti Puruskars are given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to recognize and honour women who have made outstanding contributions to society and thereby helped in improving the lives of numerous Indian women. The awards, other than the Rani Rudramma Devi award (which was instituted in 2007), were instituted in 1999 in the name of five illustrious women of India- Rani Lakshmibai, Rani Rudramma Devi, Mata Jijabai, Kannagi, Rani Gaidinliu Zeliang and Ahilyabai Holkar. The award carries a citation and a cheque of Rs. 3 lakh.

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(Release ID :93334)