Nari Shakti' chosen as Hindi word of 2018 by Oxford Dictionary

New Delhi, Jan 27: 'Nari Shakti' is the Oxford Dictionaries 2018 Hindi Word of the Year. The Word of the Year was announced on Saturday at the Jaipur Literature Festival and also the subject of a panel discussion.

"March 2018 recorded a large spike in the use of ''Nari Shakti'' as discussion began around Indian government's Nari Shakti Puraskar (Women Power Award) given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development," they said in a statement.

'Nari Shakti' got focussed attention both due to the efforts by the central government and Hindi speakers with the aim of promoting inclusive development, the release said. "This has led to new initiatives being established, existing laws being revised, and the championing of the #MeToo campaign which has helped facilitate women's rights and empowerment across all areas of Indian society," it said.

The Supreme Court's rulings on triple talaq and entry of women into Kerala's Sabarimala temple have added momentum to the idea of Nari Shakti, according to Oxford Dictionaries.

The Oxford Dictionaries team chose the Hindi Word of the Year with the help of a panel of experts comprising Ashok Kumar Sharma, advisor at Public Relation Society of India; Kritika Agrawal, lawyer (Oxford), polyglot and Indian language expert; Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival; Randhir Thakur, Associate Commissioning Editor of Hindi, Oxford University Press India; Saurabh Dwivedi, journalist; and Vijay Nandan, writer and translator.

In 2017, Oxford Dictionaries had chosen 'Aadhar' as the word of the year.