To celebrate perseverance despite odds and the accomplishments of remarkable women across the world and to support more women pathbreakers in every field, JKYog launches the Global International Women’s Day Awards coinciding with the 110th anniversary of International Women’s Day. JKYog was established by global spiritual leader, mind management authority and bestselling author Swami Mukundananda to spread the knowledge of Yoga as per the Vedic scriptures for the physical, mental, and spiritual upliftment of humanity.
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IWDA – Honorees
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Nominations are open for emerging women youth leader awards, lifetime achievement awards (40+ years of contribution) and women in leadership awards under the following categories:
Social Leadership
Business Leadership
Environmentalist
Women can nominate themselves or be nominated by others. Nominations will be accepted until Mar 12th, 2021.
All nominees need to submit the following 3 documents in word format iwdawards@jkyog.org.
A 200-word summary of the nominee’s contribution in their chosen area of excellence
A Detailed Resume.
Seperate document for honors, awards, and publications
In addition, the honorary awardees of repute this year are “Mother of Orphans“, Ms. Sindhutai Sapkal, Indian social worker and social activist; and Dr. Swati Mohan, Guidance Controls and Operations Lead for the NASA Mars 2020 Mission (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California), which successfully landed Perseverance, the latest Mars Rover.
About the Awardees
Sindhutai Sapkal, recipient of more than 750 national and international awards for her work to uplift the destitute people, has a heart rending yet inspirational story. Her husband tortured and left her for dead in a cow-shed while she was pregnant to term. There under the shelter of a cow, she gave birth to a child and cut the umbilical cord with a stone after 16-17 tries. Turned away by her own parents, she then took shelter in a cremation ground and was going to give up her life when she heard the cries of a destitute beggar who had nobody and was about to die of hunger. She says that in helping that beggar to survive, she realized that when one feels badly about oneself one must help others to find joy again. She then took on many orphans under her wing and gave up her biological child to a trust for fear that she would be partial to her own blood and in doing so may neglect her duty to the orphans. Despite having only studied until grade 4, she was able to purchase land and build a state-of-the-art facility for children, providing food, clothing, shelter, and education, through money from awards. Today she has nurtured over 1050 orphaned children, towards a successful, productive life. She passionately speaks in a TED talk, “One must live life for others and meet obstacles bravely instead of running from them because there is no other way to live life.” Particularly admirable is the fact that she bears no bitterness towards her husband who ironically came to her in his old age seeking shelter. She calls him her “naughtiest child“.