NITI Aayog honours women changemakers on Women’s Day
| Date :09-Mar-2020 |
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh presents an award to Sneha Sundaram during ‘Women Transforming India Awards 2019’, being organised by NITI Aayog, in New Delhi on Sunday. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant (R), former Assistant Secretary General UN Lakshmi Puri (2L), UN Resident Coordinator in India Yasmin Al Haque (2R) and others are also seen. (PTI)
NEW DELHI :
Defence Minister Singh felicitated women from different walks of life and emphasised on the role of women in the workforce in contributing to the economic growth of the nation
THE NITI Aayog on Sunday conferred awards on 15 women from different areas for their ground-breaking endeavours and displaying role as changemakers. These women from different walks of life were felicitated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh here on the occasion of the International Women’s Day. Since 2018, the awards have been hosted under the aegis of NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) with special focus on entrepreneurship.
The Defence Minister emphasised on the role of women in the workforce in contributing to the economic growth of the nation, the Aayog said in a release. “Today’s awardees have overcome financial and societal challenges not just to redefine the word entrepreneurship but also refine it. I congratulate the NITI Aayog and WEP for providing women entrepreneurs with a platform to share their dreams, failures and victories with each other and grow from them,” Singh said.
The awardees included Priyanka Mokshmar, co-founder of Vaayu Home Appliances that provides affordable and environmentally feasible alternatives to traditional AC units across India. It also includes Ramya Venkataraman’s Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA), which creates a certification framework for assessment of teachers’ skills and competency; Shilpi Kapoor for BarrierBreak, a company focused on the accessibility of technology for those with disabilities; Rinka Banerjee’s Thinking Forks for a consulting organisation, with expertise in the food and nutrition industry. Among others also included Nidhi Pant for combating issues around waste and farmer living standards, through her Science for Society’s innovative idea of selling dehydrated vegetable snacks; Anupriya Balikai’s Spookfish Innovations for standards of products and quality control assurance for food packaging. Praveen Nair was given the special jury award for Salaam Baalak Trust that has successfully worked in rehabilitating over 81,000 destitute and homeless children.
Woman commando serves with elite anti-Naxal unit even while pregnant
DANTEWADA :
IN keeping with her commando training of being tough and never giving up in the face of difficulty, a six months pregnant Sunaina Patel continued to serve with an elite police unit that conducts anti-Naxal operations. Woman commando Sunaina Patel continued to patrol the Naxal-infested jungles, carrying a full load of weapons, that includes an AK-47 and a backpack weighing 8-10 kg, even when she was almost six months pregnant. She is part of the elite District Reserve Guard Danteshwari Fighters, deployed in one of the worst Maoist-affected areas of Chhattisgarh.
This International Women’s Day Patel’s story is one of the most inspiring. She only decided to take it easy when her senior asked her to take rest in view of her advanced stage of pregnancy. “I was 2-months pregnant when I joined the unit. I performed all my duties with sincerely. But now have been asked by my seniors to take proper rest,” Patel told ANI. “Today also if I’m asked I’ll do it with utmost sincerity,” she said. Patel is now eight months pregnant and is working in a comparatively relaxed atmosphere. Sunaina Patel has also played the lead in the Police commissioned short film ‘Nai Subah Ka Suraj’. When officials got to know about her pregnancy, they immediately stopped sending her to field operations and advised her to take proper rest. Speaking to ANI, Abhishek Pallav, SP Dantewada, said, “She has motivated many women to join the anti-Naxal force since she has become a commando.”
Sanitary pad disposal bags mandatory from Jan 2021: Javdekar
PUNE :
UNION Minister Prakash Javdekar on Sunday said the Centre would make it mandatory for sanitary napkin companies to provide bio-degradable disposal bags from January next year. He was speaking at an International Women's Day event in Pune attended by waste collectors, who he referred to as “swachhta sevaks”. “I have observed that despite repeated appeal to sanitary pad manufacturers, they are still not providing bio degradable disposal bags. From January, 2021, the Union Government will make such bags mandatory,” said the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. He said cleanliness norms in force in municipal areas will now be applicable to villages having a population of more than 3,000.