CB BureauThe Martha Farrell Awards for Excellence in Women’s Empowerment were recently handed out to Nadiya Shafi and the Maharashtra-based Resource and Support Centre for Development (RSCD) in the categories of ‘most promising individual’ and ‘best organization for gender equality’, respectively.
The award was instituted in 2017 in memory of Dr Martha Farrell, a prominent activist for gender equality and women’s empowerment who was killed in Kabul 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 upholds her ideals and principles.
The award is co-sponsored by Rizwan Adatia Foundation (RAF) and Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), and supported by Martha Farrell Foundation (MFF). The award gives a prize money of INR 150,000 to each of the winners in the two categories. The award’s objective is to discover, recognise and honour mid-career individuals and committed institutions who have made valuable contributions in the areas of women’s empowerment, gender equality, or feminism in everyday life. They can come from any sector – government, business, industry or civil society.
The ‘most promising individual’ (any gender) is for a person who has worked for at least past five years on promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. The ‘best organization for gender equality’ is for any organisation that has been implementing systems and practices to create an innovative and comprehensive approach towards gender equality and a gender-sensitive environment within their own workplaces, for at least the past five years.
This year a total of 147 nominations were received across both categories, and these were reviewed by an eight-member jury comprising of names like Kamla Bhasin, Shabana Azim and Justice (Retd) Ajit Prakash Shah. Unfortunately, CB’s questions on how the jury was constituted and the reason for 3 out of the 8 members being male for a women’s empowerment award went unanswered.
Nadiya Shafi is from Srinagar and a video reporter associated with the Kashmir Unheard Project and Video Volunteers. Since 2014, she has been leading gender discussions clubs in her hometown which have students, housewives, labourers, artisans and farmers as participants. They engage in discussions about sexuality, patriarchy and gender inequality. She is currently in the process of expanding these clubs to the Shopian and Phulwama districts of Southern Kashmir. She won from a pool of 82 nominated entries.
RSCD was awarded for sustained efforts toward promoting inclusion of women in political processes across 30 districts of Maharashtra. Established in 1994, RSCD started the Mahila Rajsatta Andolan (MRA) in 2000, and since then have been working towards increasing women’s participation in local governance structures. Its mission to promote women’s leadership is seen in its organisational practices as well wherein senior leadership and district teams are all women. Male staff are encouraged to reflect on their experiences of care-giving responsibilities at home, support their wives and female family members to participate in local political activities, ensure joint property ownership, etc.