The 12th session of Ministry of Tourism’s Dekho ApnaDesh on 30th April 2020, titled, ‘Celebrating the Incredible Indian Women in Responsible Tourism’ presented some powerful and personal stories of a few incredible women in India, who offer an alternative imagination of travel.

The webinar explained how individuals can create change in their life and the communities they live in through tourism. While travelling , using local resources , staying in home stays, supporting undocumented new lesser know enterprises eating at a small family owned restaurant, all make a huge difference to the locals and thus helps in growing the areas which benefit from tourism.

The team of presenters from Outlook Responsible Tourism Initiative, a part of the Outlook Publishing Group, Soity Banerjee, Radhika P Nair, and SonaliChatterjee

made a case when in the post-Covid world, the role of these women in tourism will be crucial, especially when homestays and remote destinations will start drawing more travellers.

The webinar presented ten inspiring stories:

• Stanzin Dolkar from Maan village, Ladakh who is a budding astronomer, Telescope operator and Astropreneur.

• The unassuming Sunita Marawi from Bandha Tolavillage near Kanha, a teacher and bead jewellery maker from the Baiga tribe.

• Phejin Konyak from Shiyong village in Mon district Nagaland, a coffee grower, homestay owner and ethnographer managing her coffee plantation and orange orchard and also documenting the tattooing practice of the Konyaks.

• Laxmi, a hospitality expert and masseuse from Delhi NCR, who overcame her disabilities to make a career in hospitality and therapeutic massage.

• Rekha Rautela from Sarmoli village in Munsiari, Uttarakhand, a home stay owner, Bird watching expert and Panch of the Van Panchayat.

• Raksha Patekar from Dehene village in Maharashtra, rural tourism expert and master trainer, providing hospitality training to community based tourism projects.

• Sajna Shaji a drummer and travel guide from Mothakkara, Wayanad in Kerala.

• Pabitra Maya Khawas, homechef and entrepreneur from Chuikhim, north Bengal.

• Sumitra Biswas from Andaman & Nicobar Islands, a scuba diver and an underwater reef restorer.

The objective of Ministry of Tourism’s webinar series is to create awareness about and promote various tourism destinations of India – including the lesser known destinations and lesser known facets of popular destinations.

For those who had missed these webinars, the sessions are now available on the https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbzIbBmMvtvH7d6Zo_ZEHDA/featured and also on all social media handles of Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.

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NB/AKJ/OA