President confers Nari Shakti Puraskars on 29 women

An obstetrician from Tripura, shawl artisans from Nilgiris and an innovator making biodegradable polythene in Kashmir were among the 29 women awarded the Nari Puraskar for 2020 and 2021 by President Ram Nath Kovind on Women’s Day. A day earlier PM Modi met the women and interacted with them.

From Karnataka, the awardees include Belgaum’s Sobha Gasti, who has mainstreamed more than 3600 devadasis and Dharwad’s Radhika Menon who is the first woman Captain with the Merchant Navy.

Apart from that, mathematician Neena Gupta, Arunachali winemaker Rage Rita Takhe, Chhattisgarh’s Madhulika Ramteke who started a women’s banking cooperative with 5,372 branches and folk artiste Batool Begum were some of the awardees of 2021.

Maharashtra’s first woman snake rescuer Vanita Jagdeo Borate, organic farmer Ushaben Dineshbhai Vasava, Kashmiri innovator Naseera Akhtar who came up with biodegradable plastic, Tamil Nadu’s shawl artists Jaya Muthu and Tejamma, and Dr Ela Lodh obstetrician and gynaecologist from Tripura were among the 14 awardees for 2020.

PM Modi interacted with the awardees on Monday. A government release said that Modi praised women for their contribution to society. The release added that the PM told the women that, “Your work has the spirit of service as well as innovation.”

The Nari Shakti Puraskar is awarded by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to acknowledge the contributions made by individuals and institutions, to celebrate women as those that contribute to empowerment in different walks of life.

“The winners of the Nari Shakti Puraskar for the year 2020 are from fields as diverse as entrepreneurship, agriculture, innovation, social work, arts and crafts, STEMM, and wildlife conservation, etc. The winners of the Nari Shakti Puraskar for the year 2021 are from the fields of linguistics, entrepreneurship, agriculture, social work, arts and crafts, Merchant Navy, STEMM, education and literature, disability rights, etc,” a government release said.

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