Bina Sheth Lashkari | |
|---|---|
 in 2013 | |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Known for | starting a Doorstep School |
Bina Sheth Lashkari (born ) is an Indian Doorstep school founder in India. Over 30 years she has helped to organise the education of 100,000 children in Mumbai. In 2013 she was awarded the Stree Shakti Puraskar.
Laskari took her first degree in child psychology.
She started her work when she founded her first school in Cuffe Parade in Colaba in 1988. At the time children from the slums could only look on as richer children went off to posh schools. She originally had 25 children and their Banjara parents were working for low wages gutting fish. [1] She had been inspired to the idea while she was taking her master's degree in social work. She had visited the local school and she was surprised to find that children were leaving after her three or four years. Visiting the children's parent she found that the children were all ready an essential part of their families wage earning. They could not be spared if the family was to survive. With the assistance of Rajani Paranjape she started a school that could be on their doorstep. [2]
On International Women’s Day in 2013 the President of India Pranab Mukherjee presented her with the Stree Shakti Puraskar. The award was one of six made in New Delhi at the Presidential Palace - Rashtrapati Bhavan. She was nominated by the state of Maharashtra for her work in education and training. [3]
In 2016 the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited her in Mumbai. [4] That year the school's campaign had led to the naming of streets after their pupils. Previously unnamed streets in three areas of Mumbai were named after their students. The objective is to inspire other students to gain an education and have ambition. [2]
In 2019 it was estimated that over the 31 years she has helped to organise the education of 100,000 children in Mumbai. By that time the school had seven yellow school buses with school equipment inside them. Each of them stops four times each day for two and a half hours, so each bus is teaching 100 children each day. [1]
Jetsun Pema is the sister of the 14th Dalai Lama. For 42 years she was the President of the Tibetan Children's Villages (TCV) school system for Tibetan refugee students.
Chetna Gala Sinha is an Indian social entrepreneur working to empower women in areas of rural India by teaching entrepreneurial skills, access to land and means of production.
The Nari Shakti Puraskar is an annual award given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Government of India to individual women or to institutions that work towards the cause of women empowerment. It is the highest civilian honour for women in India, and is presented by the president of India on International Women's Day at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. The award was instituted in 1999 under the title of Stree Shakti Puraskar, renamed and reorganised in 2015. It is awarded in six institutional and two individual categories, which carry a cash prize of 200,000 and 100,000 rupees, respectively.
Maniben Kara (1905-1979) was an Indian social worker and trade unionist. She was a founder member of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha and served as its president. She was honoured by the Government of India in 1970 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.
Gargi Gupta is the founder and secretary of Voice Of World (NGO), a multi-unit non-profit organization for visually impaired, disabled, and orphaned children in Eastern India, headquartered in Kolkata, India.
Kalavati Devi is an Indian mason who became a toilet builder in Kanpur. She transformed her own community by installing a 50-seat toilet and then moved to other communities. She has helped build 4,000 toilets improving the lot particularly for women and children. In 2019 she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar.
Sailakshmi Balijepally was an Indian paediatrician and the founder of Ekam Foundation, an NGO working in the areas of child and maternal health and well-being. She was awarded the Nari Shakti Award for the year 2014 by the president of India.
Nanditha Krishna is an Indian author, environmentalist and educationist. She was recognised by the Government of India who gave her one of the first Nari Shakti Awards in 2015, the highest award for women in India. She is the president of the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation in Chennai and an author of several books.
Seema Kaushik Mehta is an Indian Kathak expert and designer of jewellery. She received the Nari Shakti Puraskar award for her dancing advocacy in 2019 after working with under-privileged children in Mumbai.
Swaraj Vidwan is an Indian social worker and activist for the underrepresented. She is a former member of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. She was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar by the government of India for her work with vulnerable and marginalised groups. She is currently affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and serves as a General Secretary in the BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha, the party's Scheduled Caste wing.
Dr. Saurabh Suman is an Indian Agri researcher who was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar. She leads an NGO that empowers women in Bihar. Suiman has also been involved in organising celebrations of Mahishasur martyrdom day.
Uttara Padwar is an Indian charity worker from Madhya Pradesh who was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2013.
Jyoti Mhapsekar is an Indian award winner. She is as a Social Activist, a playwright and a librarian. She is known for her role as founder and President of Stree Mukti Sanghatana. She has won awards including the Nari Shakti Puraskar.
Shakuntala Majumdar is an Indian animal rights activist who was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar for her work for the Society for Protection of Cruelty to Animals in Thane.
Darshana Gupta was an Indian known for organising mass weddings. She was the secretary of the Banarsi Das Gupta Foundation. In 2019 she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar by the President of India on International Women's Day having arranged the weddings of 3,500 couples who might otherwise have remained single because they could not afford a traditional grand wedding and dowry. In 2023, she died at her residence in faridabad.
Urmila Balavant Apte is the Indian Founder of the BhartiyaStree Shakti organisation in 1988 which is dedicated to the empowerment of women. She received the Nari Shakti Puraskar from President Ram Nath Kovind in 2018 for her work.
Rekha Mishra is an Indian police officer from Railway Protection Force(RPF) who was recognised for finding hundreds of lost children. She was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2018.
Anita Gupta is an Indian social entrepreneur, organic farmer and tribal activist. She has arranged training for more than 50,000 rural women.
Janki Vasant is an Indian activist. She received the 2016 Nari Shakti Puraskar.
Seema Sakhare is an Indian feminist who campaigns to stop violence against women.