Swami Dayananda Saraswati was a renunciate monk of the Hindu Saraswati order of sannyasa. Pujya Swamiji as he was fondly known was a renowned traditional teacher of Advaita Vedanta, and founder of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulams in Pennsylvania, USA; Rishikesh, Uttarakhand and Coimbatore Tamil Nadu, India. He was also the spiritual Guru of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was awarded posthumously the Padma Bhushan,, for his exemplary service to the nation in the field of spiritualism in 2016.
AIM For Seva is a service organization in India, founded by Swami Dayananda Saraswati in 2000 to make education and healthcare accessible to children in rural areas of India. It is a non-governmental organization (NGO) in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. AIM for Seva is funded entirely by donations.
Manjakkudi is a village on the banks of Kaveri river in Tiruvarur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It comes under the Kudavasal Taluk.
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.
Padala Bhudevi is an Indian social activist with Savara women to help people to improve entrepreneurship and their family diet. In March 2020 she received the Nari Shakti Puraskar.
Chami Murmu is an Indian environmental activist and is known for planting trees in India. She had planted 2,500,000 trees in India till she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2019.
Deepika Kundaji is an Indian farmer whose methods gained national attention and an award from the Government of India. The Nari Shakti Puraskar award was made by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind. The award is India's highest civilian award for women.
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.
Jayamma Bandari is an Indian former sex worker turned social worker. In 2018 she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar. In 2011 she founded an organisation which supports sex workers and their children with choices.
Madhuri Barthwal née Uniyal is a folk singer of Uttarakhand, India. She is the first woman to be a music composer in All India Radio. She is said to be the first female musician from Uttarakhand to become a music teacher. On International Women's Day in 2019 she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar by Ram Nath Kovind. She was awarded the Padma ShriIndia's fourth highest civilian award in 2022 by the Indian government in the field of art.
Ambica Beri born Ambica Subherwal is an Indian art gallery owner. She was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2018 for establishing a retreat for artists.
Kshetrimayum Indira Devi, known as Chirom Indira, is an Indian entrepreneur, designer, and social worker.
Madhu Jain is an Indian textile designer who is an advocate for bamboo fabric which she sees as the "textile of the future". In 2018 she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar after 30 years in fashion.
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.
K. Syamalakumari aka Syamala Kumari is an Indian temple painter. This was an occupation traditionally carried out by men. Her work includes painting at the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala. She has been awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar.
Dr. M.S. Sunil is an Indian Academician, Humanist and Philanthropist known for housing the homeless. She founded Dr. M.S. Sunil Foundation in December, 2016 in Pathanamthitta, with five trust members and six volunteers. Her works focuses to uplift the living conditions of impoverished families/ communities, her philanthropist and non- profit programmes aim to provide safe houses and healthy food to build a compassionate environment with enlightened mind on renewable energy and conservation of natural habitat by including every communities including Tribal and socially underprivileged with less or no inequality. She was acknowledged by the Government of India and was the recipient of many honours, including the Nari Shakti Puraskar- 2017 which is considered as the Government of India's highest civilian honour for women.
The Beti Zindabad Bakery was established in the Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh, India in 2017. It employs survivors of human trafficking and won the 2017 Nari Shakti Puraskar.
The Millet Network of India supports millet farmers. It was created by one hundred women who realised the qualities of the traditional crop. The group have helped village farmers to grow millet with low water usage and organic fertiliser while highlighting the injustice of government subsidies which encourage competitor crops like rice. It has received both the Nari Shakti Puraskar and the Equator Award.
Vanita Jagdeo Borade is an Indian conservationist and the founder of the Soyre Vanchare Multipurpose Foundation, which works in wildlife protection. She specializes in rescuing snakes and has been recognized as "India's first woman snake friend". Borade received the Nari Shakti Puraskar from the Indian government in recognition of her conservation efforts.
Sabarmatee Tiki is an Indian conservationist and farmer living near to Bhubaneswar in the state of Odisha. With her father she runs a non-governmental organization called Sambhav which promotes organic farming and runs seed swaps. The achievements of Tiki were recognised in 2018, when she received the Nari Shakti Puraskar and in 2020 with the Padma Shri.
