Noted Writer Namita Gokhale To Be Conferred Yamin Hazarika Woman Of Substance Award

Prolific writer and Festival Director, Namita Gokhale will be awarded the Seventh Yamin Hazarika Woman of Substance Award 2021 on September 5.

The award is instituted in memory of Yamin Hazarika, the first woman from the Northeast to join the central police service. The award is given every year by a collective of women professionals since 2015.

An award-winning writer, Gokhale has authored twenty books including eleven works of fiction. Her recent novel, Jaipur Journals, was released in 2020. Betrayed By Hope, a play on the tragic life of the poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt, was also published last year, while, a new novel, The Blind Matriarch, will be out in late September 2021.

Gokhale is also the co-founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, founder- directors of the Mountain Echoes, The Bhutan Literature Festival from 2009 to 2019, and mentors Himalayan Echoes, the Kumaon Festival of Literature and the Arts.

Gokhale is committed to supporting translations and curating literary dialogues across languages and cultures. She has been conferred various prizes, including the prestigious First Centenary National Award for Literature by the Asam Sahitya Sabha in 2017.

Yamin Hazarika was the first woman from Northeast India to be selected for the NCT of Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Island, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli Police service (DANIPS), a federal police service in India, administering Delhi and the Union Territories in 1977. Hazarika succumbed to cancer in the year 1999, but her great trail of legacy lives even today inspiring millions, especially women in the law enforcement sector.

Robin Hibu, IPS, Special Commissioner, Delhi Police will be the Chief Guest on the occasion. Historian Prof Yasmin Saikia of the Arizona State University, USA will be the Guest of Honour.

The event will be held online, following Covid 19 protocols on September 5 at 7 pm IST.

Previous winners are author Indrani Raimedhi, athlete Tayabun Nisha, actor Moloya Goswami, environmental activist Purnima Devi Barman, social activist Hasina Kharbhih, and historian Rana Safvi.