Port Blair, March 15: On the Occasion of International Women’s Day, Ms Sunita Das, an island girl, daughter of Shri Ajit Das from Kadamtala was awarded ‘Education Excellence Award 2021’ in the category of “Best Innovative Learning Tools” at EEA Virtual Conference, New Delhi on 8th March 2021.

The award was for her efforts towards creating a learning centre for the tribal (Garasiya and Bhil) rural youth of Udaipur District, Rajasthan. As a development practitioner; she always wanted to learn new things and experience new places. After completing her studies, she got an opportunity to work with SBI Foundation as a Rural Development Fellow in Udaipur District, Rajasthan. With her innovative idea, she has opened a door to the digital world to the tribal rural youth of Rajasthan and created a learning centre with the help of village institution. She also initiated the setting up of a mini library and bought a desktop in the centre and trained them in computer education.

Sunita also formed a nature club with the tribal youth to make them aware of the importance of sustainable management of natural resources and environmental conservation. Now the tribal youths are providing training to the new generation from their community.

In communication with Andaman Chronicle Sunita said, “Textbook knowledge is not enough, so I created a learning centre and formed a nature club with them and introduced computer knowledge for better understanding towards digital knowledge. Now, they can browse, read and understand about the problems the world is facing due to climate change, and other natural calamities”.

Currently, Sunita is working with the Department of RD, PRIs & ULBs, Port Blair as Domain Expert (RD/Panchayat). Before this, she has worked with Tribal Welfare Department, Port Blair and the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, New Delhi.

She has also won the ‘National Women’s Leadership Award 2020’ in the category of “Outstanding Women Achiever in the field of Sustainable Forest Management”, and 3M CII Young Innovators Challenge Award 2019 in the category of “Community Up-liftment towards making forest products for livelihood generation”.