Udaipur: A woman who survived being buried alive at birth was awarded for setting up a successful dance company in Rajasthan.
Gulabi Sapera, a member of a snake-charming tribe was among women who on March 6 received the Maharana Mewar Foundation Annual Awards at Udaipur, a town in the northwestern Indian state.
The awards, now in their 35th year, recognize exceptional individuals across the world. More than 1,800 people, many from overseas attended the program held at the iconic City Palace.
The organizers said this year’s program aimed at encouraging women achievers who challenge prejudice against their gender. Negative social attitude toward women remains a major social problem in parts of India, added the award committee heaed by Arvind Singh Mewar of Udaipur, the 76th Custodian of the House of Mewar and the chairperson and managing trustee of Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation .
Gulabi Sapera’s stunned the audience. She was buried by elders of her community just an hour after her birth before her aunt rescued her. She was the seventh child of a family of nomadic serpent hunting tribe in Ajmer, Rajasthan. The elders did not want to be ‘burdened’ with bringing up of a girl. Killing of baby girls was common in the tribe.
Gulabi’s attempted murder was undertaken against her father’s will and without his knowledge. She later rose to prominence after being spotted dancing to snake charming music by an official in the Rajasthan tourism department in 1981.
Gulabi has since taken her celebrated whirling dance style ‘Kalbeliya’ around the world, performing in 165 countries. The dance, whose steps match the movement of a snake, has won international acclaim being listed in UNESCO’s representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The dance is also now one of the major features detailed on tourism maps in Rajasthan.
Other awardees included Captain Radhika Menon, the Indian Merchant Navy’s first woman ship-captain, and Moti Meena, who refused to be housebound after becoming a widow at 28.
Arvind Singh Mewar said the awards have always been committed to progressive values of empowering women through education and acknowledging their contribution to rural development work often in village communities.
He hailed the awardees as ‘beacons of inspiration.’
The awards resonate with the ideals and achievements in the late 19th century when Maharana Shambhu Singh of Mewar set up the first secondary school for girls in Udaipur. Education was important for Singh who was not formally educated.
Awardees were presented with ceremonial shawls, toran plaques, certificates, commemorative medals and cash awards, depending on the category of Awards.
(Source: indiagbnews.com)