By Our Staff Reporter
Bhopal, Sep 20
Godfrey Phillips Bravery, a corporate social responsibility initiative of Godfrey Phillips India, today later evening, honored thirteen brave people from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. The Awards were presented by Lt. General S H Kulkarni, VSM**, General Officer Commanding, 21 Corps and Mrs. Pravina Kulkarni, President, Army Wives Welfare Association, Bhopal.
Mr. Harmanjit Singh, General Secretary, Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards, said “My best wishes to all our winners and nominees. In our journey of over 20 years to find and bring to attention the acts of bravery by common people, we have awarded over 1200 bravehearts.
Our award winners and nominees are the true mark of the impact; our initiative has had since its inception more people to imbibe the spirit of bravery in their everyday List of awardees life.”
Some 10-12 men broke the room’s door and entered, firing indiscriminately. The Naxals shot her Yadav, Nitin Kumar She Anita Bai brother in leg and he fell, Anjali picked and swung him up on shoulders and ran. Nand,reached her grandfather’s house, around 300 meters away and admitted her brother in hospital. Anjali was also Narre honored with the National Bravery Award on Republic Day 2012. The Special Social Bravery Award was presented to Jyoti Yadav of Rajasthan who at a young age of 12 undertook the responsibility to empower widows and created inroads for their employment.
With the help of her head teacher and village panchayat head, she visited families of these widows and convinced them to allow widows to come out of their houses and work. Despite resentment and humiliation, she continued her efforts and convinced around 100 widows, including her mother. These women are now employed in aganwadis and some have become teachers in schools. For her untiring efforts against injustice to widows in Rajasthan, Kum. Jyoti Yadav of Rajasthan is awarded the Social Bravery Special Award of the 21st Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards.
The Physical Bravery Award was awarded to Nisar Khan, a truck driver who saved many lives. During the transfer of petrol at a petrol pump, the tanker caught fire. It was half filled up with petrol.
Undeterred Nisar Khan mustered courage and drove the tanker away from petrol pump to more than 4 kms distance. While he was taking the tanker away, it caught fire. The tyres started burning too.
But, brave Nisar continued to drive on with full passion until he reached a safe place to halt. For his exemplary courage, sense of duty and selfless service, Shri Nisar Khan of Rajasthan is awarded the Physical Bravery Award of the 21st Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards.
Another award for Special Physical Bravery was awarded to Reshma Rangrez of Gujarat for saving society from a terror attack. Reshma’s husband, Ahmed, was planning a series of blasts in Ahmedabad and wanted to create panic during Jagannath Yatra. On identifying Ahmed’s plan, she quietly moved out of her house and alerted the neighbors and the police. Later Ahmed was arrested with live cartridges, a double barrel gun and seven crude bombs were recovered from him.
For her exemplary courage, love
for the nation and selfless service Shri Reshma Rangrez of Gujarat is awarded the Physical Bravery
Special Award of the 21st Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards.
Shri Kanubhai Hansmukhbhai Tailor of Gujarat who lost his legs to polio was awarded with Social
Bravery Award. Kanubhai has dedicated himself to empowering the physically challenged. He set up the
Disable Welfare Trust of India in 1991 to provide free education and training to challenged persons from
poor families. He also set up a school in 10 rooms allotted by Surat Municipal Corporation. The school
had 118 challenged children in first month itself, all from very poor families. The number rose to 400
by 2005. In 2006, Surat Municipal Corporation allotted him land and Kanubhai built a Higher Secondary
school at the site. For his exemplary work for the education of disabled, Shri Kanubhai Hansmukhbhai
Tailor of Gujarat is awarded the Social Bravery Award of the 21st Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards.
The Mind of Steel Award is conferred upon Dr. Kusum Lata Bhandari, an Associate Professor in
Department of Political Science, who has dedicated her life for the welfare of disabled and the blind.
She has been conducting free vocational training courses for the differently abled. She was one amongst
15 persons chosen jointly by IBN7 and Bajaj Allianz team as super-Idols for their dedicated, noble and
humanitarian work in different fields.
Additionally other recipient of this award is Abdul Samad. He is a real life example of how bravery
can beat all odds. His achievements in the sports arena have defied his disabilities of being a speech
and hearing impaired. He plays hockey as a goalkeeper and excels in the game. He started playing the
game at the age of 10 years. He shifted to the Sports Authority of India, where he stayed for five years
before moving on to the MP Academy to further hone his skills. For his dedication and will to overcome
disabilities, Shri Abdul Samad of Madhya Pradesh is awarded the Mind of Steel Special Award of the
21st Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards.
Chanda Shroff is the first Indian to win the Rolex Award for Enterprise for “empowering rural women”
in Kutch region of Gujarat. She founded Shrujan, an NGO which has turned women of 120 villages in
the backward Kutch and Banaskantha districts into entrepreneurs engaged in embroidery work. Under
her guidance, Shrujan has worked with 22,000 women from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and nearly 120
villages in Kutch have been covered. Women work at their homes and earn Rs 15 per hour. Currently
Shrujan has the annual revenue of about US$700,000.
For her efforts towards empowering rural women, Shri Chanda Shroff of Gujarat is awarded the
Amodini Award of the 21st Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards.
Godfrey Phillips India instituted the Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards in 1990. These Awards bring to light
the uncommon spirit of the common man, and gives recognition to extraordinary yet little known acts
of physical valor, social service and humanitarian deeds. The purpose of the Godfrey Phillips Bravery
Awards is to instill amongst people the culture of selfless action. With its two initiatives, Godfrey Phillips
Bravery Awards and Amodini, over 1,200 bravehearts have been honored and over 7000 women
empowered directly.
Since inception in 1990, these awards have grown to encompass 20 states – Orissa, Chhattisgarh,
Uttaranchal, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Goa, Himachal Pradesh and the recent addition of
Jammu Kashmir, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The five zone awards will be followed by the National Awards, which will take place in Delhi.
