Lokvani covered Manisha Bhatt in our Women of Influence series
The India New England Woman of the Year award for 2017 was presented to Manisha Bhatt. Manisha Bhatt is a Senior Attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services. She works with the underprivileged people in the greater Boston community and assists them in domestic relations cases. Her specialty is working with survivors of domestic violence. She has been actively involved in creating the Know Your Rights campaign for South Asians.
“ Ms. Bhatt embodies exceptional passion for service for the less fortunate through her legal service as well as broader community outreach. In the process, she has demonstrated how law can be used to create hope and spirit to elevate all of us†said Prat Moghe who served as the spokesperson for the Judges Panel. Other members of the independent judging committee were: Jaya Aravind, Captain Alpa Ladani, Sangeeta Moorjani , Bharat Patel, Chandu Shah and Dr. Steve Singh
Acharya Dr. Shashikala Dwarkanath the spiritual head of Chinmaya Mission Boston was given the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The awards were presented in a glittering glamorous ceremony hosted by Mandy Pant and Jharna Madan. The event was originally conceived by Upendra Mishra and later taken to a new level by Dr. Manju Sheth who received the INE Woman of the Year award in 2011.
The event included a dance presentation by Jothi Raghavan and her students and musical presentations by Nidhi Tare and Sowmya Shri.
Other finalists for the Women of the Year were Reena Patel, Taniya Nayak, Asmita Khanolkar, Gretchen Hayden, Asha Dixit, Neha Dalal, Rama Bansil, Namita Dodwadkar, Susri Anuradha, Aditi Taylor, Deepika Kurup, Zenobia Moochala, Meara Sharma, Jayashree Voruganti, Megha Desai, Jayanti Bandhyopadyay, Dhanashree Ramachandran, Aditi Mehta, Sheetal Acharya, and Darshana Zaveri.
Robin Chase, the co-founder of Zipcar gave the keynote address. Genevieve Nadeau, Chief, Civil Rights Division, Massachusetts Attorney General's Office also spoke at the event.
It is always a pleasure to see the hard work of so many women being recognized. We look forward to the next years event.
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