An Indian environmental engineer has won this year’s prestigious ‘Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards’ here for providing women working on farms with water management solutions and protecting small farmers against droughts and flash floods.
Trupti Jain, 46, was one among the six winners chosen for the Asia-Pacific laureate from a pool of nearly 1,900 applicants from over 120 countries and were selected by an independent international jury.
Each recipient receives a USD 100,000 prize money as well as a year of mentoring.
Jain, an Indian government employee for two decades in the rural development, has worked for women farmers whose work frequently go unrecognised.
Jain started Naireeta Services in 2013, providing handmade water management solutions that enable small farmers to filter and store rainwater underground to protect them against droughts and flash floods.
Her Gujarat-based company has already implemented 232 systems in India, directly benefiting 18,000 small farmers and indirectly helping more than 100,000 of the rural poor.
Five other winners, representing Latin America, North America, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa, were also honoured at the awards ceremony.
