NEW DELHI: Union textile minister Smriti Z Irani on Friday called for further empowering woman and give them the opportunity and freedom which would broaden their experience and help them achieve their goals.
Giving away The Sunday Standard Devi Women’s Awards for Dynamism & Innovation to 12 woman who have excelled in their fields and been torchbearers, displaying immense courage fighting the odds, Irani said all these “brilliant women” have a story and a legacy which carries over 40 years, like Ritu Kumar (a well known Ritu Kumar, Designer & Textile Revivalist).
“It is quite a legacy that stood on stage this evening, where Ritu Kumar was describing her 40 year old journey and here I am a minister at 40. This says so much and how much women have travelled in the history of our country,” said Irani.
”It is the fact that Laila Tyabji (Craft Revivalist), Ritu Kumar, Vandana Luthra (founder, VLCC) they all have been torchbearers. And they all have done things which they were not in a position to do. I remember Ms Luthra own personal journey what I have heard. She began her jouney with a loan of Rs 20,000 and with people around her who told her that does she want to run a beauty parlour.. I am sure if they would look at her balance sheet today, they would know that she has reached a Rs 1000 crore mark,” said Irani.
“What enriches us in that journey is what we have seen and what we have learnt, what we have read and who we have met,” she said adding that she herself undertook myself and at 16.
”I told my father, who said that at 17-18 your marriage will be fixed. I said I have lived till now as your daughter and rest of the life as someone’s wife, so some years I want to live myself to see how much courage, I have. I myself belong to a low middle-class family and I think what gives women strength is the stories that they read so there is a takeaway for me as a women is to gift a girl a story, a book, you never know what changes to that life you might bring. Reach out to a girl and just gift her a book,” said Irani.
The New Indian Express Devi Awards are conferred upon those women who have displayed dynamism and innovation in their professional and personal lives.
The 12 woman who were awarded include:
Anvita Dutta, Scriptwriter & Lyricist
Jagi Panda, Media entrepreneur
Laila Tyabji, Craft Revivalist
Mallika Srinivasan, Industrialist
Preetha Reddy, Vice Chairman, Apollo Hospitals
Radha Kapoor, Entrepreneur
Ritu Kumar, Designer & Textile Revivalist
Sanjukta Parasor, IPS Officer
Seema Rao, Commando Trainer
Usha Choudhary, Social Activist
Vandana Luthra, Founder VLCC
VK Karthika, Editor & Publisher