Vidhya Parshuramkar, 24, Awarded Rohini Nayyar Prize for Work on Sustainable Nutrition

New Delhi: In a ceremony held on October 31 at the Indian International Centre, the fourth edition of the Rohini Nayyar Prize was awarded to 24-year-old food technologist Vidhya Parshuramkar for her exceptional contribution to making sustainable nutrition accessible for all.

The Rohini Nayyar Foundation sponsors this prize in memory of her life and work. Nayyar trained as an economist and then went on to become an officer in the Indian Administrative Service. She much of her career in the Planning Commission, working on programmes including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. For Nayyar, rural development in India was “both a passion, and mission”, said the foundation's director, Deepak Nayyar. The Rohini Nayyar prize comes with a trophy, a Rs 10 lakh cash prize, and a citation.

Vidhya Parshuramkar gives a speech upon receiving the Rohini Nayyar prize.

The award was presented by Professor S. Mahendra Dev, chairperson of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, who worked closely with Nayyar. The jury consisted of Dr. Rajesh Tandon, Founder-President of Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), Seeta Prabhu, professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, Dr. Ashok Khosla, a notable environmentalist, and Renana Jhabvala, a social worker associated with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA).

Parshuramkar is the first woman to be awarded this prize.

One in three people in India having micronutrient deficiencies, and it was to tackle this issue that Parshuramkar developed 'Nutri Dabba'. By providing biofortified seeds to farmers, Nutri Dabba uses locally sourced millets rich in nutrients such as iron, vitamin C, and zinc and is made to be affordable and accessible. Through her business model, she not only increased revenue of farmers by eliminating middlemen, but sustainably helped lakhs of schoolchildren become healthier by addressing micronutrient deficiencies.

Just 24 years old and from a farming family in Maharashtra, Parshuramkar said her personal journey motivated her professional mission. She was anaemic herself during her youth, which drove her to address the issue through her knowledge of food technology. Looking at the commonality of such deficiencies in India, especially in rural areas, she took it upon herself to find a sustainable solution for her country. As Parshuramkar said during her speech, “Nations are not just built by walls and borders, but by strong people.”

She ended her speech by speaking on the struggles women face as entrepreneurs. Balancing the expectations and desires of family and society is a challenge faced by many women. She continued to say that "women can become the best entrepreneurs" due to their ability to carry the weights of dreams, expectations, and responsibilities on their own. She concluded with a piece of advice for all women with such dreams and ambitions to "not wait for the right moment, just grab the opportunity and go for it".

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