The Hon. President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on March 8 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.
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.
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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