Eight women honored with Rotary ‘Hamari Beti’ Award

This Monday was a very special day, when our Club conferred Rotary Hamari Beti Awards on eight women achievers for their grit, courage, confidence, and exceptional spirit of moving ahead with aplomb.  And no less than a sitting judge of the Panjab and Haryana High Court, Ms Justice Ritu Bahri, was there to present these awards.

The awardees included IRS officer Monica Bhatia the first Indian woman to head the global forum on transparency of the international body OECD.  Though she had to leave early in the morning on her way to Paris having stopped over for a short while to connect with everyone at home, the Award was received by her proud mother Dr. Nirmal Bhatia.

Babbi Harbhajan Singh, the mother of over 442 heart patients who has been so fondly and affectionately been nursed by her before and after the heart surgery under our club's Rotary Heartline programme.

No less had been the contribution of Amarjit Kaur, who having served in a bank for 20 years, has devoted her life to cremate with full honor and dignity the unclaimed bodies.  She has cremated over 300 such bodies so far, and drives the ambulance herself to carry them to the cremation ground.

Archana Sardana, who has entered into the Limca Book of Records several time, is a dare devil who has conquered all her fear and is first Indian woman mountaineer, sky diver, base jumper, deep-sea diver, etc., besides undertaking all such events to raise awareness about eye donation.

Supreet Dhiman, a successful business woman leading the Chandigarh Adventure Treks and Sports (CATS) had not only been inspiring young and old for exploring the wilds and trekking to unexplored heights, but also engaging the city in voluntary blood donation every three months without fail with over 100 donors walking in  at each camp on an average.

President Vivek Gupta presents the 'Hamari Beti' Award to
Ms Justice Ritu Bahri of Panjab and Haryana High Court.

Hats off to Dr. Archana Singh, chairperson of School of Communication Studies at Panjab University, who adopted the 'Hamari Beti' project of the Club and initiated a weekly programme on campus radio Jyotirgamaya, to spread the message of female foeticide, and other women related issues in the community.

The Club also honoured two young girls from Sacred Heart School, Tarini (12) and Arunima Goyal (14), who have done their family, this city, and the country proud by winning numerous national and international chess championships.

Congratulating the award recipients, Ms Justice Ritu Bahri said that there was a greater need to spread the message across and curb the immoral practices in the society whether it is eve teasing or wife beating, or female foeticide.  The social organisations like Rotary must continue to awaken the masses through its programmes and empower the women to be capable of knowing their rights, and fighting the social evils that are destoying our society.

The programme  began with a moving street play 'Parchhaiyaan' presented by the staff of Mohali-based Gilard Electronics that highlighted the various facets of woman’s life and how her emotions and aspirations get stifled in the society.  The company's directors Ms Guneet Singh and Mr Sanjiv Singh with over a dozen of their employees presented a highly moving mime show that was beautifully punctuated with expressive graphics and background music.

Ms. Justice Ritu Bahri also presented a Commendation Certificate to the team of Gilard Electronics for their theatrical rendition.

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We are 'This Close'.

A team of 27 Rotarians from USA, Australia, New Zealand, and France are in Chandigarh to take part in the fight against polio during the national immunization day (NID).

Led by Cynthia Wright Covington with her husband Barry Walter Covington as co-leader from USA, the team went to various booths in Mauli Jagran, Manimajra town, Bapu Dham Colony in Sector 26, to administer polio drops on Sunday, and later today in the morning went for a house-to-house mop up operation.

"India is a shining example in the world in eradicating polio through remarkable collective efforts of government and Rotarians", said Cynthia Wright Covington, who is on her third visit to Chandigarh with the NID team, having come earlier in 2009 and 2011.
The team comprises 23 Rotarians from USA, one each from Australia and France, and two from New Zealand, including 81 years old past district governor William Edward Crawford from US.

Having learnt about this team's trip, a 27-years old Rotaractor from Alaska, Ann Marie, also joined the team at Chandigarh and felt completely transformed having interacted with little children and families in some of the slums outside the city.

After participating in different localities around Chandigarh on Sunday, during the NID, they went around house-to-house for mop up operations on Monday.  Later in the afternoon, as they returned, for a brief stopover for lunch at Hotel Aroma's Aquamarine, they posed for a "This Close" pose for the media.
Later in the evening they attended the reception that our Club organised.
Kudos to PDG Madhukar Malhotra, and Rtn. A.P. Singh for coordinating their visit, Rtn PP Praveen Goyal for providing an overview of polio-eradication efforts made in India,  and all the host Rotarian families who so graciously opened their homes for their visiting guests.

'Hamari Beti' programme on air from today

Today is the World Radio Day, and the day the Panjab University's community radio, Jyotirgamaya 91.2mhz, launched the 'Hamari Beti' programme.

If you recall, last year, we had tied up with the University's community radio and initiated the recording for a radio programme on 'Hamari Beti' by creating a bank of recordings with various women personalities of the city.

Thanks to the School of Communication Studies, and with the coordination by the alumni of SCS and Rotary Club of Chandigarh members, the radio programme, 'Hamari Beti' went on air today morning, with the formal inauguration by Prof. Arun Grover, Vice Chancellor of Panjab University, Chandigarh.

This was a momentous occasion as President Rtn. Vivek Gupta, Director Community Services Rtn Shuchita Luthra, Hamari Beti Chair Rtn Senu Duggal, and I attended this event.

Prof Arun Grover also launched the audio-books created by the students and Rotaractors from our Club, for the visually impaired children to help them prepare for examination.

In end-March/April, we shall be launching 'Hamari Beti' Awards for recognising the women in our tricity area who are not only contributing to the society but excelling in their own respective fields.

We welcome more suggestions from our members for taking this programme further.