Woman Exemplar Award 2009

Delhi based Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), under the aegis of its National Committee on Women Empowerment, has since 2005, institutionalised an annual CII Woman Exemplar Award.

Sponsored by HSBC India, the award promotes women empowerment at the community level by discovering and recognising those who have, against all odds, excelled and contributed significantly to the development process in India.

The talented awardees set an example to others, igniting the spirit and the belief that others too can be empowered. The nominees/awardees are grassroots community women workers.

The award comprises a medallion, citation and a cash award of Rs. 100,000/- for each of the awardees is presented at the CII National Conference and Annual Session, which is scheduled towards April-end every year in New Delhi.

Areas of work

The contribution should be in the field of:

• Education & Literacy
• Health
• Micro Enterprise

Eligibility criteria

• The Award is intended for lowest grassroots level under–privileged women, from either rural or urban slum areas, who have excelled in various chosen fields
• The nominee’s accomplishments should have spanned 5 years or more Evaluation will be done on the last 5 years work
• The nominee should be a self-motivated woman exhibiting leadership skills
•  NGOs can only be the proposers and not the applicants
• The nominee should be able to produce a recommendation letter from an authorised agency such as – government departments including Panchayat/ Municipality, government schools or primary health centres, nationalised banks or any recognised financial institutions
• The awardee is expected to make further contributions to lives of the underprivileged
• Women who have been already recognized nationally or regionally are not eligible for this

Award assessment criteria

The nominees will be evaluated as per the following criteria:

• Key Achievements
• Unique approach adopted to achieve desired results
• Beneficiaries Targeted
• Upgrading Knowledge and empowering others
• Vision and Leadership

Preference will be given to women who have not had an opportunity to study, or have studied against all odds, or, without formal education, have achieved a lot.

A woman, who has done exemplary work at a young age, 23 years onwards, would be given preference.

Everything being equal, a woman who has a large impact or has worked in great depth will get priority.

Award process

• Applications will be screened and short listed candidates will be put through a process of due diligence which includes interviews of the short-listed candidates at their workplace
• A maximum of five nominees in each category will be evaluated by a third party (neither CII nor the sponsor company) and the appraisal remarks given to the jury.
• The jury will decide on the three awardees from the short-listed finalists
  

The nomination must have the contact details of the nominee along with the summary of the project in 1000-1500 words. The supporting documents should include:

• Two passport size photographs of the nominee
• Two passport size photographs of the proposer.
• Recommendation letter
• The photographs of the nominee engaged in their activities if any
• News clipping/articles and other such items, if any

The deadline for receiving nominations is November 15, 2008.

Source: CII