Change may be constant in society, but the benefits of all change must percolate down to the poor and the downtrodden, Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu said in New Delhi on Friday.
Delivering his oration at the third edition of The Hindu BusinessLine Changemaker Awards, Mr. Naidu said: “It is the role of ‘Changemakers’ — like this year’s award winners — to accelerate this process and to ensure that the benefits of this change reach the last person and uplift the lives of the poor and the downtrodden.”
Striking a lighter note on the spread of coronavirus in India, he said the country was better positioned than Western nations because of its superior food habits. Further, Mr. Naidu said that the youth should not fall for marketing gimmicks promoting Westernised dishes.
Mr. Naidu said COVID-19 is a matter of concern but not of panic for the country.
Lauding BusinessLine for recognising and awarding changemakers, Mr. Naidu said, “The Hindu Business Line is doing national service by identifying changemakers.”
‘Transforming lives’
Lauding the winners of the awards, Mr. Naidu recognised the effort of Arunachalam Muruganandam, the ‘padman’ who transformed social attitudes to female hygiene, and the winner of the Iconic Changemaker award.
“Arunachalam faced many challenges in this task. He nearly lost his family, his money and his place in society while researching on a topic that is wrongly considered a taboo in society. But his indomitable spirit has saved many a woman from the agony of reproductive diseases caused by poor menstrual hygiene,” he said.
Mr. Naidu said Pradeep Mewada, the winner of the Young Changemaker award, used innovative ways to end open defecation in his village.
He noted that the other winners of the Young Changemakers award, Rashid, Nikhil, Arun and Vimal of Genrobotics, had invented a robot to replace manual scavenging.
He complimented IndiaStack for winning the Businessline Changemaker award in Financial Transformation category. “Through your work, you created the base for transformative ideas like UPI Bhim App and Aadhaar,” Mr. Naidu said.
“Today we have honoured Shanti Raghavan of EnAble India. It is inspiring to know that her organisation has placed thousands of divyang people in corporate jobs. I am happy to know that her organisation, EnAble India, focuses on comprehensive development and people skills in order to ensure that differently abled candidates are well-equipped to face work challenges in the corporate sector.”
