NEW DELHI, 08/03/2017: President Pranab Mukherjee presenting the Nari Shakti Puraskar 2016 to Kalyani Pramod Balakrishnan of Tamil Nadu, at Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan , in New Delhi on Wednesday. Photo: V. Sudershan | Photo Credit: V_Sudershan more-in Four women working in diverse fields from Tamil Nadu were honoured with the Nari Shakti Awards by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, on Wednesday. Kalpana Shankar, Chairperson of Hand in Hand India, an organisation working on women SHGs, livelihoods and child labour; 97-year-old yoga enthusiast V. Nanammal; textile designer Kalyani Pramod Balakrishnan, who works with differently abled children; and Nandita Shah, who runs ‘Sanctuary’, an organisation that works on improving health and also on ways to reconnect with animals and nature, were the awardees from the State. Ms. Shankar, who has touched the lives of 13 lakh women in India and 1 lakh outside India, says she would like to reach out to more people now. “For the next five years, we want to go to the BIMARU States and the North East where people require our services,” she explains. Kalyani Pramod Balakrishnan, who has worked with 19,500 weavers across 13 districts in the State, says the six years spent among weavers for the Rural Development Department, many of them women, was an important life experience for her. “I now work with young adults, children with cerebral palsy and autism... I am looking at what their abilities are and giving them inputs in such a manner that their products can be put to use and is brought by people. Even when I worked with weavers, I always looked at the skills they possessed,” she said. Healthy living Ms. Shah, who had reached out to over 20,000 people in India and aboard, conducts workshops and promotes natural, organic and healthy diets. Her organisation is devoted to spreading awareness about holistic health and an ecologically sustainable compassionate lifestyle. Yoga enthusiast Ms. Nanammal, who has been practicing yoga since she was eight, was recognised for standing as an inspiration to all to to take up the practice of yoga at all ages. She is an advocate of Naturopathy and has won many gold medals and awards. The Nari Shakti Puraskars are presented to eminent women and institutions in recognition of their service towards the cause of women empowerment. The Awards were initiated in 1999.

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