Anurag Chauhan, Prasoon Joshi only male to receive this prestigious award

International Women Empowerment Summit & Awards 2019 was being held in the National Capital, New Delhi. The award was organised by IWEP along with Ministry of Women & Child Development, Ministry of Water & Sanitation, Government of India & UNICEF. Amongst array of other awardees Anurag Chauhan & Prasoon Joshi were the only two male awardees of this prestigious award, both of whom hail from Uttarakhand.

Dharmesh Pradhan giving award to Anurag Chauhan

Union Minister Dharmesh Pradhan presenting Award

Prasoon who hails from Almora, Uttarakhand is a well known figure of hindi film industry and is known for his writing, poetry and filmmaking. He is also the Chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), often referred to as the Censor Board which is a statutory censorship and classification body under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. Doonite Anurag Chauhan, youngest recipient, received the award for a project called WASH – Women Sanitation Hygiene which is a project of Humans For Humanity, an organisation founded by the 24 year old.

Humans For Humanity started making hand made Sanitary Napkins from cotton cloth and have been distributing free of cost in urban slums as well as villages. Workshops are held at various government schools and colleges with young girls to make the aware about the same by lady doctors and volunteers. They also teach women & girls how to make their own sanitary napkin which has also become a mode of earning for few women who make these napkins in bulk and sell it at very low price in near by household.

Humans For Humanity is a self funded organisation run by a 24 year old young social worker, Anurag Chauhan who is working on a project called WASH – Women Sanitation Hygiene for 3 years now. The organisation provides free sanitary napkins to women, the napkins are either handmade of cotton or prepared by supporting NGOs in India. They also provide workshop by female doctors, nutritionists and research scholars who explain to the women and girls the reason why menstruation takes place, hormonal changes, biological factors to make them aware of the facts. Many people in rural parts of India consider menstruation a dirty process, some think of it as a disease, all of this happens due to lack of awareness and age old taboos.

1st Indian woman to climb mount Everest Bachendri Pal and Anurag Chauhan

The volunteers of the organisation also provide a training program under which these women from slums, villages, govt. schools & colleges are taught how to make their own napkin rather than using ash, sand, leaves, jute bags, dirty cloth, etc. The organisation is breaking all age old taboos by conducting menstrual hygiene campaigns at temples, gifting sanitary napkins to women in the slums & villages, making them aware that its normal to have periods and there is no shame in this, the women do not need to hide the napkins and openly buy them or carry them. Anurag says, ” We need to save the lives of the women who are dying every day before we stand to empower them.”

“We certainly can’t change the world but start to change”,

added the 24 year old Founder of HFH

Humans for Humanity is a brain child of Anurag, who began this journey of serving society and doing social work from Dehradun, at a mere age of 16 years. Even at that age, he harbored an ambition to improve and work on the social strata of the world we live in. Currently, the organization headed by him is evolving social work by engaging not only the youth of Delhi, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh but also people of different professions to work towards regaining the lost sheen of society. The organization hosts interns from 17 countries (Spain, Brazil, China, Japan, Indonesia, Egypt, Argentina, Nepal, SriLanka, Australia, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Columbia, Italy, etc) working and researching on various issues of the slums in India. Other than WASH the organisation also works on the following projects –

✔ Street Smart
✔ Each One Teach One
✔ Clean India Campaign
✔ Promotion of Indian Culture and Heritage

The organisation has been recognised at many platforms – Karamveer Chakra instituted by United Nations & Icongo (International Confederation of NGOs) in 2017,

Bharat Nirman by Union Minister Dr. Najma Helptulla in 2016, National Icon Award 2018 and many more.

The award ceremony was being held at The Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi. Other awardees were boxer Mary Kom, mountaineer Bachendri Pal, athlete PT Usha, athlete Deepa Malik, actress Raveena Tandon, acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal, actress Sushma Seth, IAS Ira Singhal, Shehnaz Hussain and many more. The Chairperson of IWEP Arushi Nishankh congratulated all the awardees, thanked the honourable ministers & Members of Parliament and gave the vote of thanks.

MC Mary Kom, Laxmi Agarwal and Anurag Chauhan

MC Mary Kom (Indian Athlete & Member of Parliament Rajya Sabha), Anurag Chauhan ( Social Worker & Founder, Humans For Humanity) along with Acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal

2014 UPSC topper IAS Ira Singhal & Anurag Chauhan

The awards were given away in three segments by MP Kirron Kher, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister Maenka Gandhi along with MP Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal

Anurag Chauhan International Women Empowerment Summit & Awards Prasoon Joshi

Amongst array of other awardees ‘Anurag Chauhan’ & ‘Prasoon Joshi’ were only two male recipients of this prestigious Award

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