Women achievers of India-1

Tamildownunder · Oct 25, 2007

Dear ILites,

There are number of Indian women who have surmounted their difficulties and problems. Government of India and other organisations have installed awards in recognition of such women who are known as Women Achievers of India. I am sharing with you their life sketches here which should inspire and motivate young ILites who are in despair with problems.

Government of India, at the instance of Shrimati Sumitra Mahajan, Minister of State of Women and Child Development, has decided to recognize and honour the services of such women who have made outstanding contributions in the life of the nation. This will encourage them further to carry on their work, and to motivate and inspire hundreds of such voluntary women workers throughout the country. Five National Awards, to be known as Stree Shakti Puraskars, were instituted in 1999, in the name of five illustrious daughters of India - Kannagi, Mata Jijabai, Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar, Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi and Rani Gaindiliu. Each award shall be presented annually and shall carry a cash prize of rupees one lakh and a citation in scroll. The awards shall be given every year for outstanding contributions made by five women.

Adarsha Mata Puraskar (Since 1976): When the head of the family, who had occupied the highest position like the Diwan or the Chief Justice in the then Indian Princely states, passed away prematurely, the traditionally trained housewife rose to the occasion and shouldered the onerous responsibility of bringing up her children in a novel way and thus fulfill the unfinished desire of her husband of imparting vocational guidance and support for career development. This she did by starting a home industry and gradually handed the responsibility to her teenager sons who were still students. This is the story of Matoshri Maisaheb Parkhe who was a woman of surprising foresight and conviction for her times. This story has inspired many a Women Entreprenuers. "Adarsha" means Ideal and "Mata" means Mother in Marathi. This Puraskar was instituted with a feeling of indebtedness and express gratitude towards such women with great conviction and who have strived hard under adverse conditions to shoulder the responsibility of the family. To make her children happy and successful in life and ultimately good and responsible citizens of the society. It aims to recognize their enormous sacrifice, conviction and to thank them. The felicitation includes and certificate of honour, a memento and a cash portion. The life sketch of the Awardee Mother is presented to the audience and willing family members also speak at the occasion. It is a short and brief function, an effort targeted towards encouraging, recognising and felicitating such good elements in society.

Life sketch of Mrs. K.V. Rabiya:

Mrs. K.V. Rabiya was born in 1966 in a poor Muslim family in a remote village, Vellilakkadu in the backward district of Malappuram in Kerala. She lost the use of her legs when she was a first year student at the College, but despite the handicap she has built up a movement of community service and has spearheaded a strong adult literacy campaign in Kerala.

She started her own voluntary organisation called CHALANAM that was at the forefront of universal literacy campaign in Kerala. CHALANAM is also running five schools for physically handicapped and mentally retarded children in Malappuram District. Apart from the literacy camps, Mrs. Rabiya has conducted a number of awareness classes for women and also organised health camps and blood and eye donation camps.

Mrs. Rabiya has inspired awareness against alcoholism, dowry, family feuds, superstition and communalism. A documentary film 'Rabiya Moves' and more than hundred articles published in newspapers and journals have highlighted her contribution in changing the social life of Kerala.

Her continuing successful and unparalleled literacy mission along with the various services for welfare and development of women has earned Mrs. K.V. Rabiya the Kannagi Stree Shakti Puraskar, 1999.

Sriniketan · Oct 25, 2007

Great thread, TDU Sir.
this indeed gives motivation and inspiration to the women folk.
Even I heard of 2 women from Orissa, one of whom is going to SA, i think to get an award. She has been using only natural fertilisers for her crops and also helped the community around her to do so, which in fact gave good results in abundance of crops.
The other lady, who is still planting trees around the neighbourhood with a mission of atleast x number of plants and looks after the plants by herself.this way she has planted and helped to plant more trees and she is nicknamed 'mother of trees'.
These kind of people are from remote villages and make things happen!
We are really proud of them and we should be!
I feel sorry for not noting down their names when repeated.:bangcomp:

sriniketan

Tamildownunder · Oct 25, 2007

Sriniketan said: ↑

Great thread, TDU Sir.
this indeed gives motivation and inspiration to the women folk.
Even I heard of 2 women from Orissa, one of whom is going to SA, i think to get an award. She has been using only natural fertilisers for her crops and also helped the community around her to do so, which in fact gave good results in abundance of crops.
The other lady, who is still planting trees around the neighbourhood with a mission of atleast x number of plants and looks after the plants by herself.this way she has planted and helped to plant more trees and she is nicknamed 'mother of trees'.
These kind of people are from remote villages and make things happen!
We are really proud of them and we should be!
I feel sorry for not noting down their names when repeated.:bangcomp:

sriniketan
Click to expand...

Thanks, Sriniketan. This thread was motivated by two women whom I came to know and who fought all odds in life to raise their families. One is my wife's grandmother. She lost her husband at an young age and she had 8 children when he passed away. She brought them up, got them educated and got them well settled in life. She is no more now. But, I was blessed to meet her. Really very resourceful lady.

Another lady is my father's aunt (Chithi). She too lost her husband early and she had 5 children (four daughters and one son). She too raised them on her own and they all did very well in thier lives. She was a graduate and was speaking and writing very good English. Although they did not receive any puraskar, their saga is an example to all Indian women.

Regards,

TDU

Sriniketan · Oct 25, 2007

It is true TDU Sir.
We can cite more eg. of such women in our life, who may not get an award, but still lives in our memories ,which is in itself give inspiration to us to move forward. It is true! whenever i feel dejected I used to think of those people and think how they managed with limited resources and came out successful. It is their mental strength that matters most!

sriniketan

Shanvy · Oct 25, 2007

hi raman sir,

Good thread. there are lot of unsung heroes (should i say heroines..)....

Let us leave the already popular ones who get felicitated at the throw of an hat. or those who get the woman achievers award for the year .....

BTW sriniketan , the mother of trees...she is the great "GReen Women from Orissa" ....Urmila Behera..i take this post an opportunity to introduce her to this forum...(ofcourse i have a few more in line...hope you dont mind TDU...)

The 48-year-old woman from Kothapada village in Balasore district has been doing so for the last 15 years - planting more than 100,000 trees in at least 60 villages without taking any financial assistance from the government or anyone else.
Operating from her thatched hut, Behera is not a rich philanthropist with time and money to spare, nor is she an academic debating the nuances of global warming in seminar rooms across the world. She is simply a woman deeply committed to the environment.
Fondly called 'Gachha Maa' (tree mother) in the area, Behera has even sold her agricultural land for the purpose.
Her mission plantation has seen her planting trees on riverbanks, in campuses of various educational institutions and myriad other places.
Behera, who has transformed the area with all kinds of trees - neem, coconut, palm, mango, jamun, sal, teak, date palm, peepal and banyan- doesn't stop with just planting the tree. She also takes care of them till they attain a standard height.

"I have no son. I love the trees as my sons. In fact, I had started on this work only to overcome the sorrows of not having a son. But it later became a routine. Every morning, I plant at least 10 trees - on special occasions it touches hundreds," said the mother of two proudly.

Her social work is deeply personal. Behera actually observes the birthday of a tree by cutting a symbolic cake. Her morning routine begins by putting kajal and turmeric on a tree and showering it with water.
Her husband and daughters are with her.
"A man with blood and flesh may turn anti-social, but not the trees. I feel those who don't do anything for the society are not human beings. We will continue the mission till our death," said her husband Pitambar Das, 62.
The couple's daughters and other girls in the village tie rakhis to trees every year.

Combating the environmental blues, the woman with the green fingers has many lessons to teach from her corner of the world. We just need to learn

(Courtesy...hindustan times....)

subbutr · Oct 25, 2007

My dear TDU sir,

Very nice, informative thread and it highlights the women's efforts to attain the goals.

There are many such noble souls in our Country doing a silent reformations in the society.

Here I dedicate this article to the awareness and struggles to uplift the AID's Victims by the lone crusador P.Kousalya...
the first women to publicly admitted that she is a victim of AIDs..

Her struggles and determination to serve the society...to uplift the other victims..

P.Kousalya of Tamilnadu was the first ever women to admit in public that she had the AIDs in 1995 ....

May be my story will help spread awareness and new infections can be prevented and HIV positive people will learn to live more positively...

Kousalya was barely 21 years old when in 1995 she discovered that she, like her husband, was HIV positive.

“That time she did not know anything. She was very scared and the doctor told her that she had only two years to live.”

Just seven months later her husband died and she was left to fend for herself by her husband’s family.

It was her maternal grandmother who supported her.

The sense of fear, helplessness and denial that this naive plus-two educated village girl from Tamil Nadu felt then has long been pushed out of the mind.

Interestingly, she thanks her HIV status for her confidence, exposure and friends in other countries.

Kousalya is also an executive committee member of the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society and the youth ambassador of the Commonwealth for spreading AIDS/HIV awareness.

For her efforts in spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS, she was presented with an award, till recently reserved only for medical researchers working in the field.

Kousalya has been on the anti-retro viral(ARV) drugs for more than four years now and says her CD4 count is under control and she is feeling OK.

Today, Kousalya confidently speaks in English as she discusses issues related with HIV positive people at regional, national and international fora.

She is the present President of the Positive Women Network (PWN+).to-day...

Her Message to others as under:

This is what I want to tell all those who are HIV positive that there is hope.

Lots of drugs are available for all opportunistic infections and it is not that I am HIV positive everything is finished and I am going to die.

There are PWN+ members who have known they are HIV positive for more than 10 years.

Doctors tell them they still have time before their CD4 count goes down and they need the ARV.

The second and third line of treatment are very expensive, for which I hope the government does something.

“There are more than 2 million HIV positive women in India,” says Kousalya, who started the network with 20 women in 1998 in Chennai.

The network has more than 5,000 members in 16 states of the country.

Is It not our duty to honour such noble persons and appreciate their hard, dedicated work to the man-kind..

Thanks to the Source courtesy The Tribune...for inspiring me to write this...

Subbu

Tamildownunder · Oct 25, 2007

Thanks shanvy and subbutr for visiting this thread and adding your informations.

Regards,

TDU

So Sure · Oct 25, 2007

Great women, great work!!
Wow! Beautiful thread... Very informative....!
Thank you all for acknowledging these great women and bringing them to Indusladies.

regards,
Sharada

Sriniketan · Oct 25, 2007

Shanthi,
Thanks for giving the information on Behera--I heard this on SunTv on Sunday, quoted by Sugi. Sivam.

Glad to see so many people serving their purpose in this life, silently.

sriniketan