HT WOMAN AWARD IS BACK

T he much awaited HT Woman Award is back, now running into its eighth edition. This unique endeavor, started in 2011 as a humble effort, has grown bigger and better. Like every year, this year too, we have introduced some new categories, which will be gradually announced from tomorrow. These will be apart from our regular awards — HT Woman, HT Woman Runners Up, HT Readers Choice, HT Special, HT Judges Choice and HT Lifetime Achievement award. ADDING A CAUSE

Ever since the inception of the award ceremony, we have added social causes to it. In our first effort, we gave a platform to girls from humble backgrounds to showcase their talent on stage. In 2014, HT felicitated a team of acid attack survivors led by Laxmi, who had been bestowed upon International Woman of Courage award by the US First Lady Michelle Obama. The survivors walked the ramp and essayed their dancing and singing talent. In 2015, we raised the issue of human trafficking, where a few survivors narrated their harrowing tales.

In 2016, we took up the cause of the victims of female foeticide in which Padma Shri Gulabo Sapera narrated her hearttouching story and performed Kalbelia folk dance with her daughter Roopa. Last year, HT took up the challenging issue of child abuse where survivors talked about their horror tales leaving the audience in tears. OUR WINNERS The winners in the various categories have been real women of substance, coming from diverse backgrounds and are nominated by readers, well-wishers and their kin.

In 2011, the first HT Woman trophy was won by late Neeta Bahadur, founder of Drishti Samajik Sansthan that works tirelessly for underprivileged and special children. In 2012, Meerut’s Atul Sharma, who has been working tirelessly against female sex trafficking and welfare of sex workers, received the award. Varanasi’s Rekha Chauhan won the award in 2013 for empowering marginalized women. Bureaucrat Ministhy S Nair got HT Woman award in 2014 for her exceptional work for jail inmates in Barabanki region. In 2015, Varanasi’s Madhuri Singh walked away with the honours for establishing Garib Bank while Anita Katiyar from Kheri won the award in 2016 for fighting for people’s cause.

In 2017, Lucknow’s Begum Masroor Jahan was the clear winner. She has penned more than 65 novels and over 500 short stories in Urdu. Many scholars have done PhD on her works. Other winners were Rashmi Gupta (Runners up), Rana Safvi (Write Choice), Nidhi Mishra (Sadda Haq), Shalini Agarwal Arora (Animal Care), Shivi Kapil (Ideator), Seema Tomar (Khel Khiladi), Eco Friends Welfare Society (Clean & Green Crusader), Madhavi Kuckreja Lakhnavi Andaz, Urmila Shukla (Purvanchal Tadka), Farah Matin (Readers Choice), Mannu Ghosh (Lifetime achievement award), Chandro Tomar (Judges Choice), Tanupriya Singh (HT Special) and Sarandeep Singh (Male Behind Successful Woman).

HT FILE HT felicitated a team of acid attack survivors led by Laxmi in the year 2014