Mumbai: Deepa Pawar, NT-DNT Women’s Rights Activist has been honored with the 5th Martha Farrell Award (2021) for her dedicated efforts in the area. She has won the award in the “Most Promising Individual” category and was also conferred a cash prize of INR 1,50,000.
Martha Farrell awards have been instituted in 2016, to honour the memory of Dr. Martha Farrell, a prominent activist for gender equality and women’s empowerment, who was killed in Kabul (Afghanistan) in a terrorist attack in 2015, while leading a gender training workshop for the Aga Khan Foundation. The Martha Farrell Award for Excellence in Women’s Empowerment takes forward her ideals and principles.
The Mumbai Activist started Anubhuti Charitable Trust in 2016, which is perhaps one of the only Nomadic and Denotified Tribe (NT-DNT) woman-led organisations. Through Anubhuti Trust, Deepa works with NT-DNT, ST, and SC communities and youth on mental justice, gender empowerment, leadership training, sexual and reproductive health rights, and safe higher education and working spaces.
She has spent nearly two decades working with women, communities, NGOs, and state and local governments on issues of gender, health, rights, community development, and sanitation.
Learning the winning announcement, Deepa Pawar, Social Activist, said: “Platforms such as this give much-needed credibility and representation to grassroots voices. As one of the very few Nomadic & Denotified Tribe young women leading feminist work on the ground, being recognized by this award means a lot. It will amplify our voices at the national level to represent our otherwise invisibilized, stigmatized communities – both our unique problems as well as strengths. This award will help further women’s leadership from such highly deprived backgrounds.”
Anubhuti’s vision is for a just, equitable, and democratic society, where every person is able to attain these rights. To achieve this, their mission is to build young people’s capacities so they can realise their leadership irrespective of their gender, caste, class, ethnicity, language, or other identities, forge networks with each other and lead change for all.
A total of 120 nominations were received this year, which were carefully reviewed for merit by a six-member jury comprising eminent jurists, women’s rights proponents, filmmakers, and social activists.
About the Award:
The Martha Farrell Award for Excellence in Women’s Empowerment has been instituted to honour Dr Farrell and her ideals. Launched in October 2016, it is a first-of-its-kind initiative to discover, recognise and honour mid-career individuals and committed institutions, which have made valuable contributions in the areas of women’s empowerment, gender equality, and feminism in everyday life.
About Martha Farrell:
Martha Farrell was a passionate civil society leader, renowned and respected in India and around the world for her work on women’s rights, gender equality and adult education. She was among 14 people killed in a terrorist attack on a guest house in Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 13, 2015. She had been leading a gender training workshop with the Aga Khan Foundation in Kabul at the time of the attack.
She began her career in 1981 as a literacy worker at Ankur, an NGO working for women’s literacy and empowerment in Delhi. She broadened her focus into adult education, where she began her lifelong practice of participatory learning methodology. In 1991, she co-founded Creative Learning for Change, an NGO consisting of development professionals involved in research, training and documentation of learning materials for students, teachers and facilitators in non-formal settings. She remained connected to this initiative throughout her career.
“Martha has been recognised as an “everyday feminist | #IndianWomenInHistory”, featured in the Feminism in India Magazine.
Established in September 2015, the Martha Farrell Foundation takes forward the work that Dr. Farrell strove for. It focuses on gender justice and mainstreaming on individual, public and institutional levels, engaging with adolescents, women, men and boys across the world. The Foundation supports practical interventions towards achieving a gender-just society.
Some of these are,
• Kadam Badhate Chalo: working across 27 locations in 7 states, it is a youth (both boys and girls) led programme to end violence against women and girls.
• Making Workplaces Safe: Training & development programmes facilitating safe workplaces for all women workers in both the formal and informal workplaces.
• Scholarships & Fellowships: The MFF-NAPSWI & the Martha Farrell Memorial Fellowship are awarded to develop new knowledge and professional practices for promoting gender equality, women’s leadership, and prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace.
