Vanita Ratnam awards are the awards, instituted and given every year by the Women and child development department of Government of Kerala to honor the women who excel in various fields of social service, education, literature, governance, science, arts and culture, health, media, sports, acting and women empowerment. The award which carries a cash prize of 300 thousand rupees each, was instituted in December 2013 and started to give away from 2014.

Sukumari Amma was an Indian actress best known for her works in Malayalam and Tamil films. In a career spanning more than five decades, She has appeared in more than 2500 films predominantly in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, along with few Hindi and one each in Sinhala, French, Bengali, Tulu, English and Kannada films. Sukumari began acting at the age of 10. In 2003, she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for her contributions toward the arts. She won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the Tamil film Namma Gramam (2010). Sukumari died on 26 March 2013 in Chennai, following a heart attack.