Rotary Club of Nagpur,Vision, conferred the Nagpur Icon Award on Meenakshi Sarwate ,a highly qualified, devoted and experienced teacher/mentor/speech coordinator/sign language expert with more than 40 years of dedicated service to her credit. The award was conferred on her in an elaborate ceremony chaired by the President of the Club Rtn. Rajiv Behal at Chitnavis Centre Nagpur.
Rotary Club of Nagpur Vision, felicitates unsung heroes of the Orange City, Nagpur, every month. This is an effort on the part of the Club to recognize the contribution of these heroes of the city. Mrs. Sarwate was the Principal of the Deaf & Dumb Industrial Institute Nagpur from 1972-1996.
She has won the National Award for Best School for the Deaf in the year 1982 By President Neelam Sanjeev Reddy. She has also won a National award for Best teachers working in Handicapped Field in 1990 by the President of India, R Venkatraman.
During her tenure she gave a new shape to the educational needs of the hearing impaired in Nagpur and Vidarbha region. Along with her untiring efforts  re-established the Deaf and dumb Industrial institute Shankar Nagar, Nagpur making it the biggest institution for education for deaf children in Vidarbha and Maharashtra.
From 1996 to 2008 she worked as the Principal and Coordinator of B.Ed.(HI) in Deaf And Dumb Industrial Institute , Shankar Nagar , Nagpur. From 2008 onwards ,till date, she has been helping many deaf children with their  day to day problems and is also a consultant to many schools for the deaf and other handicapped individuals.
Mrs. Sarwate in her acceptance speech thanked the Rotary Club of Nagpur,Vision for their graciousness and expressed the need for more empathy for the deaf and other handicapped individuals.
