Women honoured

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the government felicitated 16 women and six organisations with the Kittur Chennamma Award. The annual awards are given to women and groups, who have been involved in the field of empowerment,
self- help groups and development for at least five years.

The awards which were given away by Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda carry cash prizes and a citation.

Under the women empowerment organisations category, the awards carrying cash prize of Rs 25,000 went to Cicopa from Bangalore, Paripoorna Grameena Abhivruddhi Mahila Seva Samsthe from Dharwad, Yashaswini Mahila Mandali, Kolar, Basveshwara Vidya Samsthe from Chitradurga, Krishi Hagu Gramina Yuva Jana Abhivridhi from Haveri and Gramina Udyoga Seva Samsthe from Doddaballapur.

Individual women achievers: Leela Krishnamurthy and K B Sarvamangala Shastri from Bangalore, Kudikandi Kaveramma Somanna from Madikeri, Dr Rekha B Patil from Bijapur, Pushpa Ramachandra from Gadag, Annapoorna Nivani from Belgaum and Nirmala Jhodappa Yetanati from Koppal won Rs 10,000 each.

Culture: Shilpa Nanjappa from Kodagu, A Rukmini from Chamarajnagar, Nagarathna Nagaraj from Dharwad, Naseema Banu Abdul from Bagalkot and Lakshmi Mahadev from Belgaum won Rs 10,000 each.

Literature: Pramila Karnad from Mangalore and Vimala Inamdar from Koppal won Rs 10,000 each.

Sports: Shahina from Bangalore and Vijayakumari from Hassan.

At Bangalore University, Director of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Sobha Nambisan speaking about women’s  empowerment said that ending hunger and poverty would not lead to empowerment of women, but that empowerment of women was necessary to end hunger and poverty.

The All India Mahila Samskruthika Sanghatane organised a protest demonstration against growing crimes on women in front of Town Hall. Slogans were raised against foeticide, infanticide, sex tourism and atrocities at workplaces. On the other hand, hospitals took the opportunity to shed more light on cervical cancer.

Dr Shobha Ramesh of Dr Ramesh Hospital said, “Every day more than 200 women are succumbing to cervical cancer in India. Most of these women are in the 30-55 age group. Like breast cancer, cervical cancer too is a prime cancer among women,” she warned.