Nileema Mishra .............नीलिमा मिश्रा

Nileema Mishra
social worker.....commited for the upliftment of poor rural villagers.........winner of Magsaysay award this year (2011)

नीलिमा मिश्रा
सामाजिक कार्यो व सामाजिक उत्थान के लिए प्रतिबध्द......इस साल के (2011 ) रैमन मैगसायसाय पुरस्कार से सम्मानित

नीलिमा मिश्रा को महाराष्ट्र के गांवों में बेहद कठिन हालात में गुजारा कर रहे लोगों के उत्थान के लिए अथक कोशिश करने का श्रेय जाता है। सामाजिक कार्यो व सामाजिक उत्थान के लिए प्रतिबध्दता के चलते नीलिमा की कीर्ति जलगांव, धुलिया, नाशिक, नंदूरबार तक फैल गई है। जलगाँव जिले के परोला के बहादरपुर में एक स्वमसेवी संगठन के माध्यम से, महिला बचत गुटों के निर्माण, अग्निहोत्र चिकित्सा शैली व अन्य कार्यों से विश्व पटल पर अपना और अपने संगठन का नाम रोशन करने वाली नीलिमा मिश्रा को मेगसेसे पुरस्कारसे सम्मानित किया गया है
यह पुरस्कार सामाजिक कार्यो, विभिन्न प्रकार के उत्थानों, समाज की दिशा निर्धारण करने व प्रेरक कार्यो के लिए दिया जाता है।
उनके कार्य से प्रभावित होकर नागरिक उन्हें दीदी के नाम से पहचानने लगे हैं। नीलिमा ने महिला रोजगार उत्थान एवं स्वावलंबन के लिए महिला बचत गुटों की स्थापना की। वह अब तक 1800 बचत गुट स्थापित कर चुकी हैं। जिनमें महिलाओं द्वारा स्वयं अर्जित आमदनी के रूप में पैसा एकत्रित किया जाता है। इस तरह जमा हुए एक करोड़ रुपए को नीलिमा ने नियोजित तरीके अर्थात माइक्रो फाइनेंस के रूप में इन्हीं के बीच कर्ज के रूप में वितरित कर 27 ग्रामों में छोटे उद्यम व खेती कार्यो में लगाया है।
नीलिमा का रुझान शुरू से ही सामाजिक कार्योँ में अधिक था। जिसके लिए उन्होंने प्राध्यापक की नौकरी करने की बजाए इस क्षेत्र को चुना। इन सब के लिए उन्हें पुणे में स्वयंसेवी डा. कलबाग व यदुनाथ थत्ते से प्रेरणा मिली।

मैग्सेसे पुरस्कार की घोषणा होने के बाद नीलिमा ने बताया कि अपनी सफलता का श्रेय संगठन के सदस्यों के सहयोग को दिया। नीलिमा ने कहा कि इस पुरस्कार के बाद उनकी जिम्मेदारी बढ़ गई है। अब वह चंद्रपुर व अकोला जिलों में महिला बचत गुटों के माध्यम से महिला सशक्तिकरण का कार्य फैलाना चाहती हैं। इसके अलावा धुलिया जिले में दूध उत्पादकों को न्याय दिलाए जाने के लिए एक डेयरी स्थापना की भी कल्पना संजोई हुई है। नीलिमा ने ग्रामीण विज्ञान निकेतन के माध्यम से रजाई सिलने का कार्य बड़े पैमाने पर प्रारंभ किया है।
यह रजाई विदेशों में निर्यात की जाती हैं। अपनी मां से प्रेरणा लेते हुए नीलिमा द्वारा प्रतिदिन पचास बेसहारा बुजुर्गो को भोजन कराया जाता है।
रैमन मैगसायसाय पुरस्कार
एशिया का नोबेल' कहे जाने वाले रैमन मैगसायसाय पुरस्कार सामाजिक कार्यो, विभिन्न प्रकार के उत्थानों, समाज की दिशा निर्धारण करने व प्रेरक कार्यो के लिए दिया जाता है। इस पुरस्कार को 31 अगस्त को मनीला में (प्रमाणपत्र, पदक और नगद राशि )प्रदान किया जाता है । यह पुरस्कार फिलीपीन के पूर्व राष्ट्रपति रैमन मैगसायसाय के नाम से दिया जाता है। उनकी 1957 में एक विमान हादसे में मौत हो गई थी।उल्लेखनीय है कि अब तक रमन मैगसायसाय पुरस्कार से आचार्य विनोबा भावे, जयप्रकाश नारायण, मदर टेरेसा, अरुण शौरी, टीएन शेषन और किरन बेदी को नवाजा जा चुका है।

Nileema Mishra
social worker.....commited for the upliftment of poor rural villagers.........winner of Magsaysay award this year (2011)

Nileema Mishra (39 yrs) , resident of Bahardarpur in Jalgaon, 375 km from Mumbai, was presented the Magsaysay award for her tireless contribution to rural work on Wednesday this year . Nileema was born to a middle-class family in the village of Bahadarpur, Maharashtra. With a master's degree in clinical psychology, she could have gone on to a comfortable life as an urban professional. But even as a child Nileema was sensitive to the crippling poverty in her village. When she was only thirteen, she told friends that she had made up her mind she would not marry, so she could devote her whole life to helping the poor. This was not merely a young girl's romantic fancy, as subsequent events would show. Mishra, popularly known as Didi, has been working in Parola tehsil since 2000.
Five years after finishing her studies in 1995, Nileema returned to her village to organize Bhagini Nivedita Gramin Vigyan Niketan (BNGVN), or Sister Nivedita Rural Science Center, named after an Anglo-Irish missionary who devoted her life to helping Indian women of all castes. BNGVN did not begin with a development model in mind, except the conviction that the community's problems must be addressed from within the village itself. Inspired by Gandhi's vision of a self-sufficient, prosperous village, Nileema decided that her group would not work out of the priorities of donors, or compete for government projects.. People would identify their own problems and find the solutions. In her determined manner, Nileema repeatedly told village women who confided their problems to her:
"Don't despair, we shall find a way."
And they did find the ways. Starting with a self-help group of only fourteen women, other self-help groups followed, engaging in microcredit and such income-generating activities as the production of food products and distinctive exportquality quilts. BNGVN enabled these changes by training women in production, marketing, accounting, and computer literacy. Inspired by Nileema, the women went on to build a warehouse so they could procure supplies in bulk at better prices, and formed an association that now has outlets for its products in four districts of the state. Traditionally confined to the home, these village women have become productive, articulate, and confident in their ability to think for themselves.
But the men in the villages, too, have their problems. Driven by extreme economic distress, a shocking wave of farmers' suicides struck Maharashtra. Nileema and her group responded by raising their work to the level of the village itself. BNGVN helped create a village revolving fund that provided loans for farm inputs and emergency needs; they addressed health problems by building over 300 private and communal toilets; and activated a village assembly to discuss and resolve local needs.
The success of Bahadarpur inspired Nileema to expand her work. In less than ten years, BNGVN has formed 1,800 selfhelp groups in 200 villages across Maharashtra. Its microcredit program has caused to be distributed the equivalent of US$5 million, with a hundred-percent loan recovery rate. But the most critical change has taken place in the villagers' sense of themselves, their newfound confidence that they need not despair, that, working together, they will find a way. For Nileema, now 39 years old, the way has not been easy. She has had to battle frustration and failure, to find which approaches work best for the village. But she remains resolute and passionate about her work. Asked what she speaks of the villagers: "I'm very thankful to them. They are ready to improve themselves."

In electing Nileema Mishra to receive the 2011 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes her purpose-driven zeal to live and work tirelessly with villagers in Maharashtra, India, organizing them to successfully address both their aspirations and their adversities through collective action and heightened confidence in their potential to improve their own lives.
She has decided to donate the entire prize money to her rural microcredit project, In the past, she has got around half a dozen small awards, and every paisa she donated to her cause. Even the prize money from Magsaysay Award will go to Bhagini Nivedita Gramin Vigyan Niketan (BNGVN),The award carries a purse of $50,000 (Rs.22 lakh).
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia's Nobel Prize. The prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the concurrence of the Philippine government.
Every year the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation grants the prize to Asian individuals and organizations for achieving excellence in their respective fields. The awards are given in six categories:
Government Service
Public Service
Community Leadership
Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts
Peace and International Understanding
Emergent Leadership
Acharya Vinoba bhave , Jai prakash narayan , Mother Terresa , Arun shouri , Kiran bedi are the other prominnent award winners from India...