AND WE ARE BACK T

he coveted HT Woman Award is back and in a newer and younger avatar. The unique endeavour that kicked off in 2011 is now running its seventh successful edition. This time, we will have some new categories, to be announced tomorrow (Thursday) onwards.

We have been raising the bar for ourselves by adding a cause to this annual event, which has often made the state government to take immediate action on issues the event espoused. Last year, we took up the cause of the victims of female foeticide, with Padma Shri Gulabo Sapera narrating her own touching story and performing Kalbelia folk dance with her daughter Roopa.

In 2014, HT felicitated a team of acid attack survivors led by Laxmi, who had earlier been bestowed upon the International Woman of Courage award by the then US First Lady Michelle Obama. In 2015, we raised the issue of human trafficking where a few survivors narrated their story.

Our winners have been real women of substance, coming from diverse background and are nominated by readers, well-wishers and their kin. Winners include Lucknow’s Neeta Bahadur (2011), Meerut’s Atul Sharma (2012), Rekha Chauhan of Varanasi (2013), IAS Ministhy S Nair (2014), Varanasi’s Madhuri Singh (2015) and Anita Katiyar (2016) from Kheri.

The nominees not only come from all the major cities and towns of the state, but also from remote corners such as Sonebhadra, Shaktinagar, Muzaffarnagar, to name a few. Chief guests during the events have been ex-chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, MP Dimple Yadav, actors Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Pooja Bhatt, Meghna Malik, Sushant Singh, singer Kailash Kher, music director Wajid Khan.

Atul Sharma HT WOMAN 2015 Madhuri Singh HT WOMAN 2014 Ministhy S Nair

HT WOMAN 2013 Rekha Chauhan HT WOMAN 2011 Neeta Bahadur

HT WOMAN 2016 Anita Katiyar