Hon’ble President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil gave away Stree Shakti Puruskar for year 2008 and
2009 to eminent personalities drawn from
diverse fields and launched the National Mission for Empowermewnt
of Women. The President struck a personal note when she said that the launch of the Mission gave her the happiness of fulfilment
of a dream. She thanked the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan
Singh for his support for the Mission and
acceding to her desire for the Prime Minister to Chair the Mission. Smt Patil said this is a gift to women on the occasion of Women’s
Day.
The
President said that all round development of women require that both economic
and social empowerment is taken care of. She said that for meaningful
participation of women in the economic process they should have access to
credit at low rates.
Deputy Chairperson of Planning
Commission Shri Montek Singh Pointed out that gender
perspective is integral part of the 11th plan and launch of the
mission will lead to better implementation of the gender specific programmes.
Minister of State (independent
Charge) Smt Krishna Tirath
thanked the president for envisioning the Mission
and providing unflinching support for it. The Minister said that the winners of
the Stree Shakti Puruskars are a source of inspiration for us and it is
important that thir example should be made known more
widely.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day
on 8th of March, the Government of India presents national awards
called the Stree Shakti Puraskars as a measure of recognition of achievements of
individual women in the field of social development. The awardees have been nominated by state
governments and selected by a national level Screening Committee.There
are six awards instituted in the name of eminent women personalities of Indian
history like Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar, Kanngi,
Mata Jijabai, Rani Gaidenlou Zeliang, Rani Laxmibai and Rani Rudramma Devi.
Each award carries a cash prize of Rs. 3 lakh and citation and is awarded to a woman who has
excelled in providing support and rehabilitation to women and children, upliftment of women in tribal areas, empowering women to
enable them to participate in political life, has worked with women in distress
or has shown an exemplary courage in her life.
The list of the Awardees for Stree Shakti Puraskar
2008 and 2009 is enclosed.
The National Mission for Empowerment of
Women which has a mandate to achieve inter-sectoral
convergence of all pro-women / women centric programmes across Ministries. It
is an attempt by the Government to put women’s concerns at the very heart of
public policy and governance. The
National Mission will strive to achieve social, economic and legal empowerment
of women by identifying gaps in developmental goals and setting up of an
appropriate institutional framework to overcome bottlenecks in the process of
ensuring coordinated and effective service delivery to women at the grassroots
level. The Mission
will focus on:
1. economic empowerment of women.
2. progressive elimination
of violence against women
3. Social empowerment of
women with particular emphasis on health and education.
4. gender mainstreaming of
programmes, policies, institutional arrangements and processes of participating
Ministries, institutions and organizations.
5. awareness generation as well as
advocacy activities to fuel the demand for benefits under various schemes and
programmes at the grassroots level.
STREE SHAKTI PURASHKAR 2008
Rani Lakshmi
Bai Award
Dr. Sunita
Devi, Haryana
Kannagi Award
Smt. Maha Jabeen, Andhra Pradesh
Rani Gaidinliu
Zeliang Award
Smt. Jhingubai Shrawan Bolake, Maharashtra
Devi Ahilya
Bai Holkar Award
Smt. Hina A. Shah, Gujarat
STREE SHAKTI PURASHKAR 2009
Rani Lakshmi
Bai Award
Dr. M. Vijaya,
Karnataka
Kannagi Award
Smt. Phoolbasan
Bai Yadav, Chhattisgarh
Rani Gaidinliu
Zeliang Award
Dr. Ved Kumari Ghai, J&K
Devi Ahilya
Bai Holkar Award
Smt. Rashmi
Singh, Delhi
Rani Rudramma
Devi
Smt. Sugatha Kumari, Kerala
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