The Martha Farrell Award for Excellence in Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality is a first-of-its-kind initiative to discover, recognize, and honor mid-career individuals and committed institutions which have made valuable contributions in the areas of women’s empowerment, gender equality, and living feminism in their everyday lives and practices.

The Award offers nominees and winners a platform to grow and network with like-minded professionals and institutions working in the space of gender empowerment and equality. Winners also receive a prize money component of INR 1,50,000 each.

Award Categories

Most Promising Individual

Who can apply:

  • Professionals of any gender, between ages 25 and 40 years, working in government, business, industry, or civil society organizations in India.
  • The person has worked consistently for at least the past five years to promote women’s empowerment or gender equality within the workplace, at home, in communities, in educational institutions, in society, etc.
  • Innovative, practical,and comprehensive  approaches to social change promoting women’s empowerment or gender equality.
  • Personal examples and role models who practice values of feminism in everyday life.

Best Organization for Gender Equality

Who can apply:

  • Any organization or department/center/campaign under it, including government, business, industry, educational, health, media, unions, federations, or civil society, registered in India.
  • The organization has been actively implementing systems/practices/strategies to mainstream gender both externally and internally - not just limited to program implementation but also working towards creating a gender-sensitive and gender-equal environment within their own workplace. Such efforts have been consistent for at least five years.
  • Innovative, practical, and comprehensive approaches to cultural and political change within the organization toward women’s empowerment or gender equality.

Most Promising Individual

Augustina Soreng

Augustina Soreng is a social activist, working independently for the upliftment of tribal women and girls in Simdega district, Jharkhand, in accordance with the rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India.

A tribal woman from Jharkhand, Augustina has been working in the districts of Simdega, Gumla and Khunti of the South Chotanagpur division of Jharkhand for the past 13 years. Since 2009, she has focused on addressing the challenges faced by women in tribal communities, where traditional patriarchy and the division of labour means that women and girls often bear the brunt of labour, leading to the deprivation of education, rights, and freedom.

Augustina’s work spans various sections of society, aiming to raise awareness about issues particularly affecting tribal women, such as migration, human trafficking, witch-hunting, domestic violence, sexual violence, forest rights, and land rights.

Best Organization for Gender Equality

Mahila Abhivrudhi Mattu Samrakshana Samsthe (MASS)

Mahila Abhivruddhi Mattu SamrakshanaSamsthe (MASS) is a grassroots organisation based in Belgaum district, Karnataka. Established in 1997, MASS is a membership association led by ex-Devadasi women, working to dismantle the harmful Devadasi system and empower Dalit women and children, ensuring their rights, livelihoods, and a life of dignity.

The Devadasi system is a deeply entrenched practice in parts of India, where young Dalit girls are dedicated to a deity and forced into a life of exploitation, often including prostitution. MASS’s mission is twofold:

  • Eradicate the Devadasi system: MASS raises awareness about the dangers of the Devadasi system, in order to prevent its revival, and provides support services to ex-Devadasi women and their families.

  • Empower Dalit women and children: MASS creates opportunities for economic independence, education, healthcare, and legal aid, ensuring a brighter future for generations to come.

Organization

Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra (GGBK)

Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra (GGBK) is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting gender equality, human rights and climate readiness. Founded in 1985 in the Sundarbans region of West Bengal, GGBK works with vulnerable communities addressing issues like human trafficking, child and women’s rights, and the impacts of climate change.

GGBK aims to create meaningful opportunities for vulnerable groups to ensure that they can lead their life with dignity. GGBK emphasises raising and developing outstanding leaders among women, youth and children as active citizens. Given the remote context and the climate vulnerability of the region, gender related issues like rape, child marriage and trafficking are even more heightened.

Given the vast range of issues in the area, GGBK works on various different programmes, including education, trafficking, domestic violence and dowry, livelihood promotion, and climate resilience and disaster management.

Individual

Taniya Sultana Laskar

A feminist lawyer from Barak Valley, Assam, who provides legal support to women from minority communities, Taniya Sultana Laskar is working to make access to justice easier for the people through documentation, legal interventions, legal research and building legal literacy in marginalised communities. She works as a pro-bono lawyer for grassroots communities, while also engaging with strategic litigations to bring new changes in the legal field.

In collaboration with various local organisations and through her independent activities, Taniya has worked in six districts of Assam (Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi, Kokrajhar, Barpeta and Nogaon) on various human rights issues. Working with Sanatan Unnioyon Sangstha, Taniya regularly organises gender sensitisation programmes in Barak Valley for lawyers, paralegal workers and volunteers. This network of individuals operates as a response group for victims of gender-based violence in villages of the Barak Valley.

A fellow of the South Asian Women’s Fund Legal Fellowship programme, she works on cases of violence against women in Barak Valley, including rape, sexual harassment and domestic violence;

Find out more about previous winners

Hameeda Khatoon

Kavita Bundelkhandi

G. Nancy Angeline

The Entrepreneurs Associate

Thendral Movement

Periferry

Hill Social Welfare

Jury

Ms. Mirai Chatterjee

Director of SEWA's Social Security team

Read about them

 

Ms. Mirai Chatterjee

Mirai Chatterjee is the director of SEWA's Social Security team and the chairperson of its Cooperative Federation of 110 informal women workers’ cooperatives; she has previously also served as the organisation’s general secretary. Chatterjee is the chairperson of the global informal workers and policymakers network, Women in Informal Employment Globalising and Organising, and is on the board of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. She was a commissioner in the World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health and a member of the High-Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage set up by the Planning Commission of India in 2010.

Dr. Bhavani Rao

AMMACHI Labs and the Center for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality

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Dr. Bhavani Rao

Dr. Bhavani Rao is the dean of the School of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. She is also the director of AMMACHI Labs and the Center for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality. She has held India’s UNESCO Chair in Gender Equality since 2016, and served as the coordinator of the Gender Equality & Women's Empowerment Working Group of Civil20, a G20 civil society Engagement Group. Her work is centered on empowering women in rural areas.

Ms. Sudha Srinivasan

Chief Executive Officer of Centre for Social Innovation

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Ms. Sudha Srinivasan

Sudha Srinivasan is the chief executive officer of Centre for Social Innovation, The/Nudge Institute, where she leads initiatives to create a thriving livelihood ecosystem. She currently serves on the Agri-Startup Advisory Group, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India. An engineer by training, she previously worked at Intel and completed her MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. 

Mr. Deep Jyoti Sonu Brahma

Founder Director of Farm2Food Foundation

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Mr. Deep Jyoti Sonu Brahma

Deep Jyoti Sonu Brahma is the founder director of Farm2Food Foundation, which focuses on mainstreaming agriculture as an aspirational livelihood for vulnerable youth in Assam. He works in the areas of education, climate change, and coalition building. Brahma is on the advisory governance team at Vartaleap, Catalyst2030 NAISE and several other social enterprises. He has been actively engaging and mentoring women social entrepreneurs and women-led farmer producer companies in the Northeast region.

Mr. Feisal Alkazi

Theatre Director

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Mr. Feisal Alkazi

Feisal Alkazi is a renowned theatre director and documentary maker, having directed over 300 plays for adults and children and 30 documentaries, many of them on children with special needs. He has been a counsellor and trainer with Sanjivini for over 35 years. He was also a master trainer in HIV/AIDS prevention for the UN from 2002-07. After completing his MSW, Alkazi headed Ankur, Society for Alternatives in Education, for 10 years, where Martha was a prominent staff member. When he left to start Creative Learning for Change, Martha joined him as one of the founders. For several years they worked as colleagues in the arenas of gender sensitisation, environment education and alternative education. They co-authored several books including Gender on the Agenda, Chipko, Nainas Village, among others.

Dr. Rajesh Tandon

Founder - President of Participatory Research in Asia | Chairperson of MFF

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Dr. Rajesh Tandon

Dr Rajesh Tandonis the founder-president of Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) and the chairperson of Martha Farrell Foundation. He is also the co-chair of UNESCO Chair on Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education since 2012.

A pioneer of participatory research, Tandon has given new meaning to academic research by redefining the relationship between the researcher and the researched. He has also served on numerous expert committees of the Government of India, University Grants Commission, United Nations, Commonwealth and World Bank. In 2015, the Indian Adult Education Association (IAEA) awarded Tandon the Nehru Literacy Award. For his distinguished work on gender issues, the Government of India honoured him with the prestigious Award in Social Justice in 2007.

Partners

  • PRIA