Subhashini Vasanth honoured with Neerja Bhanot Award

Bengaluru-based activist Subhashini Vasanth on 13 January 2016 was honoured with Neerja Bhanot Award. She was presented the award for her endeavour to help people in distress and for empowering widows of martyrs and their families across the country.

Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor presented the award to Vasanth at a ceremony held in Chandigarh.

Who is Subhashini Vasanth?

• Subhashini Vasanth lost her husband Col Vasanth V, who was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra in 2008 for his selfless, supreme sacrifice while fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.

• Since the death of her husband, she has been helping the families of martyrs.

• She started the Vasantharatna Foundation in memory of her husband. The foundation provides education scholarships, conducted empowerment programmes and outbound learning programmes for women and children.

• Subhashini is also a Bharatnatyam exponent known for her intense abhinaya and immaculate footwork.

• She and Veena Prasad have co-authored the biography of Col Vasanth, titled Forever Forty.

About Neerja Bhanot Award

• The Neerja Bhanot Award is an award of recognition conferred once a year by the The Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust in India.

• It is awarded to an Indian woman, subjected to social injustice, who faces the situation with grit and determination and extends help to other women in similar distress.

• The annual Neerja Bhanot Award was instituted in 1990 and named in honour of Senior Flight Purser, Neerja Bhanot, who saved hundreds of lives while sacrificing her own, during a Pan Am Flight 73 hijack at Karachi Airport in September 1986.

• The award carries a cash prize of Rs 1.5 lakh, a citation and a trophy.

Now get latest Current Affairs on mobile, Download # 1  Current Affairs App