AP Woman Saraswati Malluvalasa Wins CCI's Woman Exemplar Award

Saraswati Malluvalasa from Andhra Pradesh won the award for her Millet Sisters initiative among small-scale women farmers.

The award recognises grassroots women leaders from rural and resource-scarce areas who have faced poverty and social or gender-based discrimination but emerged as community leaders with their firm resolve to effect social change.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the award to the following women leaders: Ranjita Pawar from Osmanabad, Maharashtra, in the Education category; Rumi Perween from Kishanganj, Bihar, in the Health category; and Saraswathi Malluvalasa from Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh, in the Micro-enterprise category.

Each winner received a trophy, a certificate, and a cash award of `3 lakh.

Over 300 nominations were received from across India for the 19th edition of the award. Some 16 finalists were identified.

Saraswathi Malluvalasa, drawing from her own experience with domestic violence and gender discrimination, noticed a correlation between food insecurity, economic dependence and violence against women. She established the “Millet Sisters” initiative, a network of small-scale women farmers, encouraging them to work together to ensure food security through livelihood enhancement.

This helped improved the income of over 20,000 women. Her work exemplified the "five E's" for women's empowerment: Education, Equality, Employment, Economic Development, and Empowerment, the CCI citation noted.

B Srinivas Sathish, head of CII Andhra Pradesh, said the CII Foundation has been identifying, recognising and empowering grassroots women leaders through its Woman Exemplar Program to promote women-led development. The programme also helps build their capacity through training and mentoring, and promotes women on various platforms to help amplify their work and social impact.