Lakhimi Baruah of Jorhat, founder of Kanaklata Mahila Urban Cooperative Bank (KMUCB), was honoured with the Jingle award at the Jingle Public School annual day function held at the Tirupati Balaji Mandir Auditorium in Guwahati on Sunday.
The award consisted of a memento, a xorai, and Rs 15,000 in cash. It may be recalled that last year this award was bagged by Padmashri Jadav Payeng, the Forest Man of India, who has become famous for creating his own forest by simply planting trees over the years.
Accepting the award, Lakhimi Baruah said that before starting KMUCB, she worked in a bank which made her aware of how deprived and illiterate women barely managed to benefit from the existing banking services. She started a Mahila Samiti in 1983 at Dakshin Sarbaibandha area of Jorhat district, where she worked with a large number of economically and educationally backward women. After working for several years in the region, she finally was able to start KMUCB in Jorhat in 1998.
All personnel, depositors, and borrowers of KMUCB are women. Lakhimi Baruah has received many awards at the national level for her contribution to the cause of women’s empowerment.
Earlier at the inauguration of the function, former VC of Dibrugarh University, Kulendu Pathak addressed the gathering and stressed on the importance of character for the overall development of the students. Founder principal of Jingle Public School, Devajit Mahanta, moderated a face-to-face conversation with theatre personality Baharul Islam and well-known TV and film actor Arun Hazarika in which both the cultural icons shared their stories along with the current situation of the arts and culture in the state.
The other dignitaries who were present at the function were principal at Srinivasa Ramanujan Academy Pankaj Sarma, academic adviser at Sai Vikash Vidya Niketan Meera Muthuswamy and secretary at Guwahati Press Club Nava Thakuria.
The students and teachers of the school presented a number of cultural items while renowned violinist Manoj Barua entertained the audience with a few popular tunes. All student winners of various competitions received their prizes from the hands of dignitaries present on the occasion.
