Sanjida Khatun receives the award from Paschimbanga Governor MK Narayanan.

Rabindra Sangeet legend of the Indian subcontinent and one of the founders of Chhayanaut Sanjida Khatun has been conferred with Visvabharati University's highest recognition Desikottoma at Shantiniketan on April 27.
The Deshikottoma award was conferred at the convocation of the university by Paschimbanga Governor MK Narayanan as chief guest. Among others, noted actor Soumitra Chatterjee and Visvabharati Vice-Chancellor Sushanta Datta Gupta were present at the ceremony.
Sanjida Khatun, who is a well-known academic in Bangladesh, was instrumental to found Chhayanaut in the early 1960s. Hers was a leading role in the observance of Rabindranath Tagore's centenary celebrations in 1961, a time when Bangladesh, as Pakistan's eastern province, was under a stringent martial law imposed by General Ayub Khan in 1958. Together with the late Waheedul Haque, a reputed journalist and Tagore exponent, Sanjida Khatun played a prominent role in organising Bengali artistes in the cause of Bangladesh's freedom before as well as during the War of Liberation in 1971.
In the past many years, Sanjida Khatun has been instrumental in turning Chhayanaut into a focal point of Bengali culture in the country, a fact that has not been lost on anyone, either in Bangladesh or outside it.