Union Education Minister presents AICTE Lilavati Awards 2020
New Delhi: Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ presented the AICTE Lilavati Awards 2020 on women empowerment to the winners in New Delhi on Sunday.
Speaking on the occasion, Pokhriyal said that the government has launched several welfare schemes for the overall development of girls and women in various fields, including Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, Beti Bachao – Beti Padhao Yojana. He informed that the government launched Udaan scheme which aims to enable girls of weaker socio-economic status at school level to gain access to higher education. “We also started Pragati Yojana to give young women opportunity to further their technical education”, he said and added that the new National Educational Policy has greatly emphasised on gender equality and students should participate in such initiatives to promote women empowerment.
Welcoming the initiative of AICTE for instituting the Lilawati Awards, he said that such innovative steps shall be great motivation for girls to join higher education. This initiative will pave a path towards equality in education and innovation, for women
Based on the theme ‘Women Empowerment’, AICTE finalized the winners from a total of 456 entries who competed across 6 sub themes, which include, Women’s Health, Self-Defense, Sanitation and Hygiene, Literacy, Women Entrepreneurship, and Legal Awareness. After analyzing the initial entries, the top 10 entries under each sub-theme were invited for presentation before the two committees headed by Prof Sushma Yadava, Vice-Chancellor, B.P.S. Mahila Vishwavidyalaya Khanpur Kalan, Haryana and Dr. Vinita S. Sahay, Director, IIM Bodh Gaya.
SWEAT (Sona Women Entrepreneurship and Training) from Sona College of Technology, Tamil Nadu won the contest in the ‘Women Entrepreneurship’ sub theme. Under the ‘Digital Literacy’ sub theme, Bharatiya Vidyapeeth won the contest. Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship Development Pune won the award under the ‘Literacy’ sub theme. WIT Women Health Coalition from Walchand Institute of Technology, Maharashtra won the award under the ‘Women’s Health’ sub theme. Radiant Seetha from Thiagarajar Polytechnic College won the contest in the ‘Legal Awareness’ sub theme. Finally, Paritrana from St. Joseph’s College of Engineering, Tamil Nadu won the award for the ‘Self Defense’ sub theme. Bharatiya Vidyapeeth, who won the award under the digital literacy subtheme suggested that internet revolution that has happened in India post-2014 has played a crucial role in empowering women in the nation.
