By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
New Delhi: 15 women were yesterday presented Stree Shakti Puraskar for outstanding achievements in the area of women’ empowerment, two of them were Muslims. Shaik Shamshad Begum of Andhra Pradesh, Samsad Begum of Chhattisgarh and Nighat Shafi Pandit of J&K were presented a citation and cash of Rs. 3 lakh.
Shaik Shamshad Begum of Khammam, Andhra Pradesh was awarded for her support to self help groups. She with her own initiative formed village level organization with 400 members.
Samsad Begum of Distt. Durg working for literacy of women facilitated education of more than twelve thousand girls and started a campaign for the adoption of the girl child.
Nighat Shafi Pandit of Srinagar is an social activist and has worked for development of children and empowerment of children.
Another Muslim, Mehjabeen Sarwar was recipient of this award for 2002 for fighting for justice of exploited women. Award was eventually presented to her in 2006.
The award instituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development is given every year to recognize the achievements of individual women in the field of social development.
Other award recipients are:
Vanguri Suvartha of Andhra Pradesh, an illiterate housewife who was often beaten by her husband, formed a self-help group and emerged as a prominent community leader.
Dr. Rani Bang of Maharashtra through the Instituted SEARCH has provided health care to 50,000 tribal and rural women.
Triveni Balkrishna Acharya of Mumbai, a journalist fighting for the rights of sex workers and rescued 550 women and girls from Mumbai, Surat and Pune.
Kalpna Sarkar of Hoshangabad has done remarkable work for widows, deserted and old women.
Salmin Lyngdoh of Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya not only organizes training for skill upgradation of women but has conducted a number of awareness programme and counseling for women against domestic violence.
Neeta Bahadur of Lucknow has done several programmes for Anganwadi workers and for parents of disabled children.
D. Santhi of Erode is running rehabilitation center for disabled.
Mammohani Debnath of Tripura has Panchayat Pradhan since 1994.
Sandhya Raman of New Delhi has been awarded for contribution in upgrading skills of women artisans in textile industry.
Senu Tsuhah of Nagaland has done outstanding work for women health and has been the secretary of village women board.
Kavita Srivastava of Rajasthan has work to bring village women together on one platform for collective articulation of their problems and their solutions.
Pink Virani of New Delhi, moving beyond her personal trauma has written the best selling ‘Bitter Chocolate’ on sexual abuse and working to promote self help groups among victims of gender injustice.