Watch: Odisha’s Sruti Mohapatra receives Nari Shakti Puraskar from President Kovind

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Mar 8, 2022 at 12:10 PM Updated On : Mar 8, 2022 at 12:26 PM

Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Sruti Mohapatra received the prestigious Nari Shakti Puraskar from President Ram Nath Kovind at a special ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, today on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

She was conferred with the award for spreading awareness regarding rights of divyangs and her efforts towards their empowerment.

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Mohapatra is the founder and head of Swabhiman (State Disability Information And Resource Centre), a registered non-profit and Odisha’s first cross disability organization.

She has been a part of the disability rights movement with a focus to create rights-based environment in India for persons with disabilities.

Mohapatra is the former Chairperson of the Odisha State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and a current Member of the National Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

In 2001, she founded ‘Swabhiman’ and ‘SHARE’ NGOs working for upliftment of divyangjan in Odisha. She also founded Project Anjali for Divyang children to showcase their talents and other projects for education and self-employment support for Divyangjan.

She worked for the passage of the PWD Act in 1996 and the RPWD Act in 2016. She was awarded with Vidya Bhawan Social Service Award in 2013 and National Young Scientist Award in 1992.

Notably, the award ceremony for the year 2020 could not be held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 situation.

The award was today conferred on 29 outstanding and exceptional women achievers for the years 2020 and 2021. Twenty-eight awards (14 each for the Year 2020 and 2021) were presented to 29 women in recognition of their exceptional work towards empowerment of women, especially the vulnerable and marginalised.

Nari Shakti Puraskar is an initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development to acknowledge the exceptional contribution made by individuals and institutions, to celebrate women as game changers and catalyst of positive change in the society.

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