New Delhi, Dec. 30 :    New Delhi, Dec. 30:  They are from different lands, different backgrounds, different generations. Yet they share a common bond: a commitment to better the lives of the women around them. Now, they will form an elite fraternity - the recipients of the Stree Shakti awards. Next week, Kinkri Devi is coming to Delhi from the remote hills of Himachal Pradesh to soak in the glory of being one of the five women to be honoured by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. She will be joined by 34-year-old K.V. Rabiya from Kerala. Despite being severely handicapped, Rabiya has been at the centre of the literacy movement in the state and has battled the ravages of alcoholism and dowry side by side with other women. After a delay of more than a year, the Centre has finally chosen five women who will receive the awards in recognition of their work at the grassroots level. The awards, each carrying an amount of Rs 1 lakh, were instituted by minister for women and children Sumitra Mahajan. 'The minister felt the positive contributions made by women often go unnoticed and the Stree Shakti awards would be a way of highlighting these achievements,' said a senior official of her department. Human resources development minister Murli Manohar Joshi has announced 2001 as the year for empowerment of women and the awards are expected to add flesh to the Centre's campaign. The awards, Mahajan had announced, would go to women who, in the face of adversity, have secured a 'place in the sun' and made a difference to the lives of other women. The government has put in a lot of thought in the selection of the names, culling those which have not been lapped up by the media. The recipients are activists who have worked tirelessly, sometimes taking on moneylenders, sometimes liquor lobbies and often deep-rooted vested interests. Kamla Bai was a 12-year-old child bride who became a widow barely two years after she was married. Unwanted, she was banished to an orphanage. However, with determination and courage, she turned the end of her life into the beginning of her story. She learnt the alphabets in the orphanage and 20 years on founded her own school - Adarsh Mahila Vidyalaya - with just six students. Today, the school has more than 2,000 students and a hostel of its own. Come Thursday, 77-year-old Kamla Bai will be honoured for her resolve, her vision and her efforts to better the lot of women in the country. She will share the dais with Lilatai Pradkar of Indore who has been working with tribals, and Chinnapillai, who has instituted a savings and credit group for poor women in Madurai district. Daughter of a scheduled caste farmer, Kinkri Devi took on the powerful coal-mining lobby in Himachal Pradesh. She sat on an indefinite hunger strike in front of the high court till it agreed to curb mining which was devastating the hills. Lilatai, M.A., B.Ed, had been in academics for three decades. She could have gone on and retired happily with a fat benefit packet. But she chose to give something back to society. Besides teaching, she has been offering vocational training to tribal women.