UN Women 2021 Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards:
Meet the National Winners
INDIA
We are excited to announce the winners of the first-ever UN Women 2021 Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards!
Big congratulations to all the winners who have committed themselves to advancing gender equality and women's economic empowerment. These gender champions from different countries, sectors, and fields are acknowledged respectively for their outstanding Leadership Commitment, Youth Leadership, Gender-inclusive Workplace, Gender-responsive Marketplace, Community and Industry Engagement, and Transparency & Reporting.
*The UN Women Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards represents recognition of exemplary company efforts for gender equality and is limited to a designated category and a specific location and time period. Awarded organizations, alongside their products and services, receiving awards are not endorsed or affiliated with UN Women or WeEmpowerAsia and being recognized as an Awardee does not constitute a partnership. Claims, statements, or endorsements made by awardees are solely those of the individual or organization and do not represent official policies or positions of UN Women.
Winners
Divya believes women are key agents for development in rural India. Baeru enables women’s socio-economic empowerment by leveraging the power of design, technology, linguistic and regional context in Karnataka. Women are trained to collect, segregate and upcycle waste ensuring regular income and upskilling for them.
Pallavi Sherring founded Epicenter to co-create solutions directly with the women in villages. She started identifying Rural women leaders and artists across India by Partnering directly with Self Help groups and Artist Communities. They have partnered with over 100 artists and over 200 women entrepreneurs across India includingRajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal ,Bihar and Orissa.
Namita Vikas encourages women participation and inclusion in sustainable finance and ESG (through development of financial products) that are emerging as key opportunities to drive investments to meet theSustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which includes Gender Equality (SDG 5). Having started her own consulting firm, ,auctusESG, Namita is now devising, leading and scaling her sustainability mission of gender equality and women empowerment.
1st Runners Up
Sakhi Drishtikon is a unique program by Capgemini that envisions digital education across the globe. Radhika Ramesh’s efforts drove forward this initiative which is aimed at rural literate women from economically weak backgrounds with a location mobility challenge, to enable them with career options in the IT sector, with over 300 women currently under training.
Kanika’s goal for societal transformation in the Textiles sector to make it more ethical and environmentally sustainable. Her artisan program for livelihoods is currently underway in 4 states in India with an overarching network of almost 4500 artisans (70% of whom are women) including waste workers, rural artisans and refugees.
2nd Runners Up
Jaya took on the role of D&I Leader for EY Global Delivery Services and built a consistent strategy and vision to advance gender parity across ranks and businesses. Jaya’s vision of the last nine years has been to build EY women's leadership pipeline to create a workforce that will support the closing of the gender gap and nurture an environment where everyone is able to become architects of the transformative age.
Devyani Mehra has led the design and implementation of the Being WISE program- initiative, not limited to only Intel for the advancement and inclusion of women. Devyani partnered with multiple stakeholders like Intel India senior leadership, Intel government affair leaders, and 25 external organizations leaders to proliferate Being WISE.