Honouring women who are unstoppable, exemplary in their own right and serve as models to thousands across the nation and the world, Forbes business magazine released its 2017 list of 100 most powerful women in the world.

As a matter pride for the nation, over five women in the list are Indians. These resilient Indian women have risen through times and carved a niche for themselves in their respective fields, not only garnering praise in India but also hogging limelight around the world.

ICICI bank’s CEO Chanda Kochhar is the leading Indian women this year at the 32nd rank jumping eight ranks higher than last year’s 40.

Soon to follow is, HCL Enterprise’s CEO Roshni Nadar Malhotra ranked at number 57. While Biocon Limited’s Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw bagged the 71st spot, jumping six steps higher from 2016’s 77th rank; Chairperson and Editorial Director for HT Media, Shobhana Bhartia, bagged rank number 91.

Last but certainly not the least, Actor and Producer Priyanka Chopra makes her debut at number 97.

Congratulating each of these exceptional ladies for making India proud, let’s take a trip down the memory lane and recollect their rise to power:

1. Chanda Kochhar, CEO, ICICI Bank

Leading Indian ladies on the list Chandra Kochhar ranked at 32 this year. Born in Jodhpur and raised in Jaipur, she completed her schooling from St. Angela Sophia School, Jaipur and moved to Mumbai, to complete her bachelors from Jai Hind College. After graduating in 1982, she studied cost accountancy from Institute of Cost Accounts of India and acquired a master’s degree in management studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.

The 55-year-old banker’s journey began with ICICI in 1984. Starting off as a management trainee, she climbed the ladder steadily to become the managing director and CEO of the bank and continues to hold the post.

A leading businesswoman in India’s financial sector, she has been lauded nationally and internationally with several awards. She was conferred India’s highest civilian award Padma Bhushan in 2011. She is also the first Indian woman to receive the Woodrow Wilson Award for Global Corporate Citizenship in 2016. She has consistently featured in Fortune’s list of Most Powerful Women in Business since 2005 and first debuted on the Forbes World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list, at rank 20 to climb to the 10th spot in 2010.

She featured in Business Today’s Most Powerful Women – Hall of Fame list and Bloomberg Markets’ 50 Most Influential People in Global Finance list in 2011. Among the other honours, she received the ABLF Woman of Power Award (India) at the Asian Business Leadership Forum Awards. She was selected in Time magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World and ranked first on the Fortune List of 100 Most Powerful Women in Asia Pacific in 2015.

In 2017, Kochhar was featured in Business World magazine’s ‘BW’s Most Influential Women’ list and deemed an evergreen woman leader.

2. Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Executive Director and the CEO of HCL Enterprise

Ranked at 57, Roshni Nadar Malhotra is the Executive Director and the CEO of HCL Enterprise, is the only child of HCL’s founder, Shiv Nadar. A trained classical musician too, Roshni grew up in Delhi, studied at Vasant Valley School and graduated from Northwestern University majoring in Communication with a focus on Radio, TV & Film.

She also graduated with a Masters in Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management. Within a year of her joining, she became the executive director and CEO of HCL Corporation.

She also serves as the trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation, which runs the not-for-profit Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering in Chennai. She was awarded NDTV’s Young Philanthropist of the Year 2014 and Vogue India’s ‘Philanthropist of the Year’ award. She also chairs VidyaGyan Leadership Academy under the Shiv Nadar Foundation.

3. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman and managing director of Biocon Limited

Born on 23 March 1953, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the chairman and managing director of Biocon Limited, a biotechnology company based in Bengaluru and the chairperson of IIM-Bangalore.

The 64-year-old was the only woman to study Malting and Brewing course in Australia’s Federation University as early as 1974. She switched jobs in Melbourne, Kolkata and Baroda, before getting the opportunity start a joint venture with Ireland’s Biocon Biochemicals Limited. She was given the responsibility to establish its Indian arm. What began as its operations in India in the garage of Kiran’s rented house in Bengaluru in 1978, today is ruling the biotechnology scene in India. Her successful reflects on how she was single-handedly able to get independent control of the biotechnology company in a matter of 20 years.

Inspired by the need for affordable drugs in third world countries, she has developed cost-effective techniques and lower-cost alternatives for affordable healthcare. She supported the development of Arogya Raksha Yojana with Devi Shetty of Narayana Hrudayalaya to establish clinics to offer care, generic medicines and basic tests for those who cannot afford them. In 2010, over 300,000 were treated by these facilities per year.

The death of her best friend and illnesses of her husband and her mother with cancer, motivated her to establish a 1,400-bed cancer care centre, the Mazumdar-Shaw Medical Foundation, at the Narayana Health City campus in Bangalore in 2009.

Read more: How Kudumbasree Women Changed Barren Land to Lush Farms, Earned 100% Profits!

4. Shobhana Bhartia, Chairperson and Editorial Director of the Hindustan Times Group

Shobhana Bhartia is the Chairperson and Editorial Director of the Hindustan Times Group, one of India’s leading newspaper and media houses, which she inherited from her father, industrialist KK Birla.

She grew up in Kolkata and studied at Loreto House. She graduated from Calcutta University. When Bhartia joined Hindustan Times in 1986, she was the first woman chief executive of a national newspaper. Considered one of the forces behind the transformation of Hindustan Times ‘into a bright, young paper,’ she looks after editorial and financial aspects. She raised over Rs. 4 billion through a public equity launch of HT Media in September 2005.

She received the Global Leader of Tomorrow award from the World Economic Forum in 1996, Outstanding Business Woman of the Year in 2001 by PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and National Press India Award in 1992. She was one of the first Padma Shri award nominees in 2005 for journalism. She also served as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha from 2006 to 2012.

5. Priyanka Chopra, Actor & Film producer

The Indian actor, singer, film producer and philanthropist, first rose to fame after winning the Miss World 2000 pageant. She is also one of India’s highest-paid actors. She bagged numerous awards, including one National Film Award and five Filmfare Awards. The Government of India conferred upon her the prestigious Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in 2016. Time Magazine featured her on the 100 most influential people in the world list.

Her role as Alex Parrish on the 2015 ABC thriller drama Quantico, made her the first Indian to act as the protagonist in an American network drama series. Working with UNICEF for the last ten years, she was also appointed as the national and global UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Child Rights in 2010 and 2016.

While her singing career has three singles out, she is also the founder of the production company Purple Pebble Pictures, which released the celebrated 2016 Marathi film, Ventilator.

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16th December 2012 is a date that Indian’s will never forget.

Dipesh Tank and his nine friends started a campaign called ‘War against Railway Rowdies’ in 2013 and helped the railway police to catch hold of 150 sexual harassers in Mumbai locals.

“I am not a superhero. I am a human too. I get tired at times….I want people to stop applauding and start doing it themselves. I dream of a day when I can let go a fight against eve-teasing because there will be enough people to fight against it,” he says.

The root of respect for women in Dipesh goes back to his childhood. Dipesh has been brought up by a strong mother, Rekha Tank, who started a catering business after his father was diagnosed with a knot in his pancreas.

“My mother would take extra care of the girl hostesses. She would make it a point to drop them home herself after late night parties. The way she brought us up made us understand that every woman deserves respect,” he says.

However, life took a turn for Dipesh On the evening of July 11, 2006. Dipesh was fast asleep after his shift ended.

Thus he started his NGO ‘Youth for People’, that rescues citizens in need of help. Everyone in the NGO keeps a day job and yet manages to reach out to people across the country. 

“People were outraged. There were protest marches, but still every day this was happening to every other girl. I felt truly ashamed to be a man at that time. One thing was clear in my mind that the change has to happen from the very basics. And that day I made a promise to Nirbhaya that at least around me, I will not let this happen to any woman, ” he says.

Sexual harassment at the station was a huge problem. One day when Dipesh reached Malad station to get back to his work, he stood up against a group of boys who were hitting every other woman with a rose in the train.

“It was ridiculous… you don’t do it to your mother or your sister, do you? You don’t want anyone to do this to your wife, do you? Then why do you do this to other women?” One could hear the rage in his voice against such crimes when he asked the question.

“It is not their fault. We, as people, don’t even consider such acts as a crime. They have many big issues like rape, murder, drug dealing etc. to deal with. But we have to realise that it all starts from here.  I remember Commissioner AN Roy saying that everytime you stop an incident of sexual harassment, you are stopping a potential rape. The police can’t be everywhere, so we have to stand up against it,” he says.

Soon Dipesh was joined by his friends Meera Damji, Vaishali Janarthana, Shweta Tiwari, Sunny Dhanoe, Avinash Mendha, Rajshri Deshpande, Riddhi, Nitin Rane and Virat Singh.

“85% of the women told us that they feel unsafe at the station where they are vulnerable to regular sexual harassment,” informs Dipesh.

A copy of the survey was sent to RPF, GRP, Prime Minister and even the President of India. The team also kept filming acts at the station and posting them on social media.

In December 2013, WARR volunteers assisted officials in nabbing harassers by videotaping them. It was the first such coordinated effort on the suburban network. And so far they have helped the railway police to catch hold of 150 offenders.

 “We would film the rowdies misbehaving with women, and the police team would capture them at the next station. It was critical to show them (the cops) the intensity of the problem through video, which they would never understand without watching themselves. There were boys showing visual gestures of masturbation or passing horrible comments without an inch of fear. They had no fear because they knew that nobody would stand against something like this. But once they realised that such nonsense would not be tolerated against women and every time they do this we are going to make it more difficult for them, then they won’t dare to do it,” he says.

According to Dipesh, he has been beaten up many times by groups of eve-teasers, but these young bunch believe that this is another fight for freedom, freedom for women to travel without fear!

“Imagine if our freedom fighters were afraid of fighting, then? Understand that these people are more scared than us. But when good people don’t talk, bad ones get to talk,” says Dipesh.

Thus he started researching hidden cameras and found an interesting gadget. This was a pair of sunglasses with an inbuilt HD camera!

As this was not available in India, Dipesh asked a friend from the US to courier it. These days he just puts on his shades and makes lives of railway rowdies’ miserable.

To take a step forward, Dipesh now works for US-based NGO ‘Take her back’ – which works against human trafficking in India.

In 2016, the program’s success expanded to 200,000 notebooks in 300 schools for 40,000 children.

“When you do the right thing, the universe protects you and makes you able to do a lot of good things. So just stand up and do the right thing,” he says with a smile.

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While the battles fought by the farmers of Marathwada are well documented, not many know about the relentless fight that marks the rise of Dalit women farmers in the drought-affected region.

These Dalit women farmers have joined hands to fight and stake their claim on the ‘gairan’ or the common grazing land for cultivation.

To establish a context, the fight for land rights of Dalit farmers began under the leadership of the late Eknath Awad, one of India’s most respected Dalit leaders, across eight districts of Maharashtra including Jalna, Aurangabad, Latur, and Beed. Kantabai Ichake, a septuagenarian from Marathwada, has now emerged as one of the leading voices at the forefront of the land rights movement.

Kantabai recalls how Dalit women across Marathwada were mocked by most villagers when they got together and asked for the barren common grazing land in the village because they want to cultivate it. “You will bang your heads on the rocky land and die they said,” she told the Times of India.

Even though they were disheartened by the unkind attitude of the villagers, the women did not give up. Armed with farm equipment they got to work, and it only took them a few years to convert the arid, dusty and barren patches of land into wide open lush green fields. However, this was the calm before the storm. When the women farmers claimed ownership of the land they were successfully growing crops in, villagers belonging to upper castes were angered by the freedom, prosperity and disturbance in the traditional power structure and decided to stop the women from tilling the soil.

While some villagers employed mobs to destroy the crops, others burnt Dalit hamlets and stooped low enough to attack women and children as well. However, even through all this, the women stood undeterred as they truly believed that nothing could stop them from claiming their right to the land.

Read more: How the Simple Act of Eating Together Is Tackling Malnutrition in Rural India

Speaking to TOI, Kantabai said, “People do not realise that the fight is not just about our livelihood, it is also about our rights and dignity. We will continue our fight. We are not scared of the struggle. We will continue to demand that the government transfer land titles to our names. The government says that ‘gairan’ land belongs to the village, and it must be kept for grazing cattle. Is the government more worried about cattle than us?”

While there has been a constant debate about the ownership of this land in Marathwada, the Jamin Adhikar Andolan (JAA), a land rights movement established in the 1990s, claims that the common grazing land belonged to the Dalits during the pre-independence struggle. The claim has been supported by various land activists who state Marathwada, during pre-independence era came under the rule of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where ‘gairan’ lands were given to the Dalits. They uphold the claim by providing the Nizam’s order from old archives as evidence. The JAA, therefore, demands that land titles for the Dalit farmers be made jointly in the names of the husband and wife.

Ashok Tangade, an activist with the JAA movement, explains how this fight for land rights is breaking old practices and establishing new ground in the Indian agriculture scenario. “Throughout history, land ownership has been restricted to people belonging to upper castes, but these movements have encouraged thousands of Dalits to take up agriculture as a source of living. This has changed the socioeconomic dynamics of the Marathwada villages, especially, in the case of Dalit women. Today, they grow enough to feed their families and are no longer vulnerable to exploitation,” he told TOI.

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Indrasing’s formative years were spent watching his alcoholic father beat his mother. He grew up in such abject poverty that there would be no food in the house for days together.

During this vulnerable period, he came in contact with a group of kids who were all ‘gutka’ (tobacco) addicts, fell under their influence and became addicted to it.

“I did not know what I was doing or feeling when I was under the influence. It helped keep the hunger at bay, and that was most important to me at that time,” he recounts.

How many Indrasings do we see in our daily lives? While most of us find it easy to dismiss such children as ‘addicts’, we have to keep in mind the realities of their world. Not all issues are simple. Least of all malnutrition in India.

Malnutrition is a massive problem in India. According to the Global Nutrition Report 2017, 38 per cent of Indian children under 5 are stunted.

21 per cent of children under 5 have been defined as ‘wasted’ or ‘severely wasted’. In such a situation, the need to drive away the hunger pangs becomes an all-consuming need. And such needs are sometimes suppressed by addiction.

As was the case with Indrasing. He would spend days roaming Mumbai aimlessly trying to find means and ways in which he could feed his addiction.

On one such day, when he was out, he met a field worker who started interacting with him. While Indrasing resisted the efforts initially, after a lot of persistence and patience shown by the field worker, Indrasing started opening up to him. And that changed his life.

He now works with the organisation but recalls the moment that everything changed.

He said, “One day, there was a lot of commotion in my neighbourhood when I was returning home. I learnt that my neighbours had lost their child. While the government comes out with many schemes and policies, lack of education and awareness is the reason why none of us knows about these. If that family was aware of what needed to be done, that child could have been saved.”

Indrasing spoke the truth there. While there is a lot being done to fix India’s malnutrition problem, and it has come down over the years, lack of information and accessibility often becomes a matter of life and death.

The right words or the right actions can save lives, as organisations like ‘Save the Children’ demonstrate every day. And nutrition is not limited to just feeding poor children on the street, though that is crucial too. We have to go, quite literally, to its very beginning.

Tackling malnutrition by educating and creating awareness

Save the Children is the organisation behind these transformational stories. Established in 2008 and having a presence in over 18 states in India, the field workers of Save the Children have innumerable stories of courage and change to share.

Soni is a field worker from Mumbai. Her days are spent visiting families, going door-to-door educating them about the importance of nutrition.

She says, “In the beginning, it was a very difficult task to explain to the mothers why eating only rice is not doing them any good. They would always say that it filled their stomachs and kept them full for longer periods of time. Breaking these pre-conceived notions was what was difficult. We started off by introducing them to various cereals, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Once this concept was understood, we brought in the various seasonal vegetables.”

Mehrunisa is a mother to four children, and with each delivery, she saw her health deteriorate. She says, “I have been a part of the programme Soni didi runs and am seeing how it has impacted not just my life, but also the lives of my children. Three out of my four children were under-weight and would fall ill easily. Changing our food habits led to a sea change in their basic well-being. I also have so much more energy to bring up my children and the best part is these changes did not mean too much of an adjustment in my budget.”

The organisation brings women together periodically and conducts cookery workshops in which they talk about the health and nutritional benefits of all the ingredients being used. This is not just a great opportunity for the women to step out but also exchange notes on what works for their own kids.

Soni and her team follow up with each household every week by noting down the changes in their weight and height. She says, “Once the mothers start noticing the difference in their children they become more involved in the process and commit to it eagerly.”

On the surface, educating women about food may seem basic, or perhaps too indirect. But the reality is that if the children are born healthy, they fall sick less often, live healthier, and ultimately, longer.

These are merely two stories of change that has been brought about by educating and empowering the children and parents.

What has worked is the sustained approach that the organisation has undertaken.

Hunger and malnutrition are malaises no child should have to deal with. Unfortunately, they exist in our country and affect millions of little lives. We laud organisations and individuals who are helping India achieve United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal of providing nutritious and sufficient food to all its people by 2030, and hope more Indians will join in this mission towards a hunger-free nation.

Photo Source: Save the Children

This article is a part of The Better India’s attempt to drive conversation around the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and where India stands with regards to meeting these goals. Many organisations across the country are helping India proceed towards fulfilment of these goals and this series is dedicated to recognising their efforts and the kind of impact they have created so far.

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Pune-based Sujata Naphade was born with green fingers. She belongs to an agrarian family, and her mother-in-law is also a farmer. Her family advocates organic farming and growing up; she had always been a part of hour-long debates where the hazardous impact of chemical pesticides on produce was discussed.

Years later, it did not come as a surprise that Sujata decided to stay true to her roots and completed an undergraduate degree in Agriculture. While it is difficult to imagine how the combination of an agricultural degree and city life would work in the long run, Sujata has proved all the naysayers wrong.

Today, this resident of Pune has successfully converted a 3,500 square feet plot into a beautiful garden where she grows various fruits and vegetables, and she does it without using a drop of chemical pesticides or fertilisers. Her organic plot and garden produce enough food to feed three families with over 10-12 people.

The plot originally belonged to her brother-in-law and was merely wasting away, when Sujata approached him and with his due permission decided to convert it into a garden.

“We always wanted to grow plants using organic and natural methods. We have been maintaining a terrace garden for last 6-7 years, but it has a limitation of space. This plot solved the problem of lack of space,” she told The Logical Indian.

Sujata’s garden blooms with different varieties of vegetables and fruits — banana, strawberry, cherry, coconut, cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal, and cherry tomatoes to name a few. Additionally, she also grows herbs like basil, oregano, thyme, chives, lemongrass, and peppermint.

She spends over an hour daily tending and nurturing the vegetation around the plot and spends another 20 minutes looking after the terrace garden.

What makes this process of growing organic food all the more special is the collective effort her family puts in. Her brother’s and brother-in-law’s family also pitch in from time to time.

“We all live close to each other. Everybody enjoys gardening, and hence there are very enthusiastic participants. Since we consume the produce of this garden, it is also a necessity that we all work together to maintain it. My husband and I enjoy the process of looking after the garden. If necessary, we all come together to work on this,” she told The Logical Indian.

While most of their immediate food necessities are fulfilled by the farm, they do visit retail stores and markets to buy onions and ginger. One of the prime reasons for not growing these two crops is also the requirement of artificial fertilisers, which she thoroughly refuses to do on principle.

She recalls how when they first started farming on the plot, the soil was unsuitable and full of weed and small stones. However, instead of using fertilisers, the family decided to better its quality using a compost made of brown leaves and other parts of plants as manure.

She is an ardent follower of award-winning Zero Budget Farming agriculturist, Padma Shri Subhash Palekar. She adopted his method of using ‘Jeevamrutha’ a decoction of cow dung, cow urine, jaggery, buttermilk and any flour, diluted with water to be used once a month to improve the soil quality.

Read More: Bengaluru Techie Travels to Tamil Nadu Every Weekend, Just to Farm!

Sujata strives to bring back native varieties of seeds and encourage farmers and other gardening enthusiasts to avoid growing hybrid and genetically modified seeds.

She feels utterly gutted about the lack of local varieties of vegetables and fruits.

“I was trying to find the local variety of sponge gourd but was unsuccessful. So, I have been reusing the seeds of vegetables of my farm for the last 6-7 years. I have also read that if we reuse seeds of the plants for 12 years, we might be able to arrive at the original variety,” she said.

She has also started a seed bank this year and managed to save over 300-400 seeds from a single sponge gourd, and later distributed to other gardening enthusiasts. She firmly believes giving local varieties preference over hybrids is the need of the hour. Helping more and more farmers adopt natural farming, will not only make them self sufficient, but also, reduce the cost of farming remarkably.

While Sujata continues to conduct workshops on natural farming, she aims to reach out to more and more agriculture and gardening enthusiasts and promote organic farming in every way she can. We wish her all the best!

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“Gender equality in combat roles is not a new thing for the Sikhs. We have had it for centuries. Mai Bhago is a great example!” – Harjit Singh Sajjan, Defense Minister of Canada

From the legendary Amazons of Greek Mythology to Queen Boadicea of Roman Britain, warrior women have fascinated the world for millennia. India, too, has its own share of indomitable women who proved themselves to be fierce fighters and skilled leaders.

From outlining military strategies to storming battlefields, these unflaggingly courageous Indian women were truly a force to be reckoned with. Rani Lakshmibai and Kittur Chenamma are two of the more famous examples. However, there are many more whose stories have been forgotten.

Among these are the warrior women of Punjab — Mai Bhago, Sada kaur, Jind Kaur and Bibi Sahib Kaur — who each left an indelible mark on history. Here are the fascinating stories these badass trailblazers –

1. Mai Bhago

Photo Source

Mai Bhago, also known as Mata Bhag Kaur, was the first woman in Punjab to lead troops on a battlefield in 1705. Born in the village of Jhabal Kalan in present-day Amritsar district, she was a devout follower of Guru Gobind Singh Ji who founded the Khalsa (the tradition of warrior-saints).

In 1704, the city of Anandpur Sahib (the residence of Guru Gobind Singh) was under relentless siege by the combined forces of the Mughal army and the local hill chieftains. When 40 Sikh followers from her village decided to give up and desert their Guru in adverse battle conditions, deeply distressed Mai Bhago refused to have any of it.

Instead of convincing them to change their minds, she herself suited up in battle armour and rode into the Battle of Khidrana, embarrassing the 40 men into following her example. Under her leadership, the men fought ferociously till their dying breath, forcing the enemy (who were chasing Guru Gobind Singh) to withdraw.

Later, the Guru renamed the forgiven 40 Sikh men chaali mukte (the forty liberated) and the village of Khidrana as Muktsar (the pool of liberation). As for Mai Bhago (the only survivor of the battle), she was so good on the battlefield that he fulfilled her wish to become his bodyguard. Interestingly, Mai Bhago’s weapons can still be found in Sikh museums and Punjab’s Armed Forces Preparatory Institute for Girls has been named after her.

2. Sada Kaur

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In the local folklore of Punjab, Rani Sada Kaur of Batala is considered the chief architect of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s remarkable rise to power. The leader of Kanhaiya misl ( a sovereign state of the Sikh Confederacy in 18th century Punjab), she was Ranjit Singh’s mother-in-law and later, his sole regent after his parents died.

It was Kaur’s sound counsel and material resources that helped the young prince defeat his rival chiefs, assume the title of Maharaja and unite Punjab into a one-nation state. The military mastermind also led the armies alongside Ranjit Singh on his war campaigns and negotiated at diplomatic tables.

She is remembered for her outstanding bravery and war tactics during the campaigns of Amritsar, Chiniot, Kasur and Kangra. Even during the expeditions against the martial Pathans of Hazara and Attock, it was Kaur who took the lead as a military strategist. Intriguingly, she is mentioned as “one of the greatest generals of her time” in Afghan records!

3. Jind Kaur

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The last queen of the Punjab Empire, Maharani Jind Kaur (or Jindan, as she was also called) waged two wars against British rule in India. Her campaign against colonial rule began when she was still in her 20s — her husband, the last Maharaja of the Punjab, had died of a stroke in 1839 and the British were trying to wrest the kingdom from her infant son and heir, Duleep Singh.

One of the most remarkable characters of 19th-century India, the feisty queen led the court, discarded the prevalent customs of sati and purdah and held meetings with ministers and the military, all of whom followed her counsel. Even after losing the first Anglo-Sikh war, her power and influence continued unabated.

To counter this, the British imprisoned and exiled her while taking her young son to England. Over thirteen years passed before he was permitted to meet his mother and bring her to London, where she remained until her death in 1863 at the age of 46.

4. Bibi Sahib Kaur

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The elder sister of Raja Sahib Singh of Patiala, Princess Bibi Sahib Kaur is one of the few Indian women who has won a battle against a British general. Born in 1771, Kaur was married at an early age to Jaimal Singh of Fatehgarh (in present-day Gurdaspur district of the Punjab).

In 1793, in view of mounting dissensions and security threats within his state, Raja Sahib Singh, recalled his sister and appointed her to the post of Prime Minister. However, she had to soon lead the Patiala army to Fatehgarh rescue her husband who had been captured by a rival chief. Next year, she faced off a large Maratha attacking force in a fierce battle and helped a neighbouring ruler quell insurgents in his state.

In 1799, George Thomas, an Irish adventurer who controlled the kingdoms of Hansi and Hissar turned his attention to Kaur’s territories. The gutsy Prime Minister herself led the Patiala army to relieve the besieged towns and battle the British troops till he was forced to withdraw. Her bravery has been memorialised in the words of Thomas who noted that “she was better than her brother” in defending the capital city of Patiala.

You May Like: The Story of Rani Abbakka Chowta, the Fearless Warrior Queen of Tulu Nadu

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Sunita Behera, all of 23, is the founder of the first-all-women Paika Akhada Dal in Odisha. The ‘Paika Akhada’, is the traditional martial art form of Odisha. Practising this art-form not only changed Sunita’s way of thinking but also made her more confident and empowered to fight back.

The Akhada (arena) imparts training to women and girls and prepares them to protect themselves in any adverse situation in life. By doing this, the Akhada is taking forward the age-old martial art forms and also making women and girls stronger to fight back and protect themselves.

A once shy girl, Sunita has trained hundreds of girls through her institution ‘Kalinga Women Paika Akhada’.

Sunita and her team are now imparting training to girls for self-defence, physical fitness and competitive games. Beside, empowering the girls, Sunita is also promoting the skill across the country.

“We have constituted two teams, one with 12 members and another with seven members. Our prime objective is to make girls more confident and empower them to fight back during adverse situations and defend themselves in a variety of real-life scenarios,” said Sunita in a report on Women Odisha.

Always worried about safety and security, she was inspired to train herself and girls of her ilk when she heard stories of Karuvaki, a female warrior in Kalinga War.

“The character inspired me a lot. Like her, I too belong to a fishermen community. Perturbed over growing violence against women, I decided to focus on building confidence among young girls, teaching them self-defence and strategies that can save their lives during the crisis,” she says in a report in New Indian Express.

The members of Kalinga Kanya PaikaAkhada showcased their fighting skills for the first time at Gadakhurda and Maa Barunei shrine. Later, Sunita and her team were highly appreciated for their fighting skills in and outside the state.

Apart from taking part in district-level festivals and state-level Paika Akhada competitions, Sunita and her team showcased their talent in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Delhi and Kerala, and brought honour to the district at the national level, reported Orissa Post.

Here’s wishing Sunita and her team all the very best.

Cover photo: Representational image

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Sonagachi in Kolkata is known to be Asia’s largest red light area — it is often said that the area is a world in itself. More than 11,000 sex workers inhabit it. For the longest time, these sex-workers had no access to banks and the services provided there. In some cases where they managed to gain access, they were shunned away because of the work they did.

For sex workers in India, economic exclusion from government and other formal financial institutions is both a cause and an effect of their occupation. Sex workers usually come from economically marginalised communities where they are often denied the education or skills required to secure employment in the formal sector.

More than two decades ago, 13 sex workers came together pooling their savings to establish Usha, a co-operative aimed at providing financial assistance to sex-workers.

Usha is the country’s oldest ‘bank’, which is run by and for female sex workers – an achievement in itself.

Established on June 21, 1995, the bank only had ₹ 30,000 as working capital. Now the turnover stands at nearly ₹ 30 crores, and now, this bank is all set to expand its operations. Over the years the co-operative has done very well, and they have now opened its services for marginalised women in other professions as well as working-class men.

Putul Singh, a former sex worker and one of the women who ensured that this co-operative sees the light of the day, says,“Landlords don’t want to give rental contracts, bank employees turn them away. The only option for loans is to go to the local moneylenders whose high-interest rates mean a lifetime of debt. The only way sex workers can save is to keep money with the brothel madam who often is dishonest in her dealings,” as reported by The Logical Indian.

Stories from sex-workers on how much this co-operative has helped them and their families are heartwarming. Sharing her story, a 36-year-old who has been a sex worker since she was 15, speaks about being able to marry off her three sisters and repair her house. The bank has loaned her money five times, the last one was an amount of ₹70,000, which she is currently paying back in instalments, as reported in The Indian Express.

You will be surprised to read that in 2016-2017, the bank gave out ₹ 7.62 crores in loans to 7,231 sex workers, most of it for children’s education and housing.

The bank survived demonetisation and even competition from private and nationalised banks.

Shefali Das, the chairperson of Usha, says, “We meet twice a month where we sanction loans, deliberate on ways to raise collections, recovery of sticky loans and fluctuation of interest rates,” as reported by The Hindustan Times.

The bank has three branches at Kalighat, Sonagachi and Dinhata (Cooch Behar district). It has a network of 16 collection centres in red lights areas of the state where 28 agents, all children of sex workers, collect deposits every day.

Here’s wishing such initiatives more power and success.

Cover photo: Flickr

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When 26-year-old Deepanjali Dalmiya decided to quit her well-paying job as a financial consultant at Ernst & Young (New York) in 2015 and ventured into the personal hygiene sector to start her own company, her family thought she would sell perhaps a new detergent, soap or a hand wash.

She recalls the uncertainty on their faces the first time she told them she wanted to start a, organic sanitary pad manufacturing firm instead.

“They thought I had gone completely crazy. Everybody tried to dissuade me because it is a huge monopoly market and also, menstruation is such a hush-hush topic. And for them to tell other people that their daughter sold sanitary pads for a living would have been awkward, no?” she laughs.

When she discussed her business idea with her father, who she considers her biggest critic and pillar of support, she realised how even that one conversation was clearly breaking mental barriers. It was the first time; she had ever openly discussed periods with him. Though he was shy at first, he was open-minded enough to realise where her passion lay there.

Moreover, the women around her continued to be her support system and she continues to attribute the success of Heyday to them!

The inception of HeyDay.

Having grown up in and studied in women’s only institutions like Carmel Convent School in New Delhi for 14 years and Barnard college in Columbia University, New York, Deepanjali always had a feminist drive within her.

If there was one thing she was clear about- she wanted to do everything in her power to empower other women. Even though she moved to Ernst & Young (New York) after having majored in Economics and Psychology, she knew she wanted to get into the FMCG business.

Once she had the financial acumen and expertise to really her own a self-venture, she decided to take that plunge and pursue her entrepreneurial dream.

Having tied up with Nielsen for research in the personal hygiene segment, she realised the sanitary pad manufacturing industry had not been disrupted. Her personal on ground research revealed how women were making do with the available sanitary pads because healthy biodegradable alternatives were next to nonexistent.

“They were unaware of the amount of what harm they were causing, first to the environment, and secondly to their own bodies,” she says.

This raises an important question. How many of us truly are aware of what happens once we dispose or more likely dump the sanitary pad into a dustbin?

Here were some eye-opening facts she stated:

Regular pads in the market are made of 90% plastics and contain SAPs, polymers, chemicals, bleaches and perfumes, all of which are highly carcinogenic. And since the vaginal area is so sensitive, these pads block airflow to the vagina, allowing chemicals to absorb directly into the bloodstream.

This leads to increased risks of cervical cancer, UTIs, yeast infections, rashes, allergies and painful periods.

If one chooses a cotton pad, it is important to know how laden with pesticide residue they can be, since 26% of the world’s pesticide is sprayed on cotton. These pesticides have been shown to cause hormonal imbalances and even infertility.

And if every woman is exposing her body to synthetic pads, five times a month, 60 times a year, and a whopping 15 to 17k pads in a lifetime – one can only imagine what damage it can cause!

Deepanjali knew it was high-time she developed a well-thought-of, user-friendly and most importantly – an eco-friendly alternative to synthetic pads.

Dedicating over two years of her life, she developed Heyday – a completely end-to-end biodegradable and organic sanitary napkin to help women in a metropolitan setting make an educated choice. But the road was full of challenges.

While she wanted to develop a plant-based prototype, she was well aware she had to find a super-absorbent plant that could compete with synthetic polymers which had a way higher absorbent capacity.

The answer to this search was bamboo. A highly absorbent plant, they used seven layers of bamboo fibres mixed with cornstarch to give the pad a very soft texture.

Heyday’s 12 production lines across China and Finland make over 448 million pads today. One of the prime reasons for not setting up the plant in India was the absence of chemical-free soil. After a search of almost seven months, every sample of soil she sent to the lab tested positive for chemical presence.

“For any soil to be completely chemical free it has to stay away from it for almost a decade or more. So when we found chemical free areas in China and Finland, we collaborated and set up units there,” she says.

While the pad is produced in China, its fully biodegradable cover is manufactured in Finland. Once these are shipped to India, the final packaging – instead of polythene like regular sanitary pads – is done in a paper mono carton. So, the full packet including the cover and the soiled napkin is 100% biodegradable.

Despite the production costs, heyday pads cost no more than the regular ones in the market. And these pads decompose within six months of disposal, which means you stop contributing to the 9000 tonnes of plastic waste that soiled napkins generate every year.

And even though the company may not make as much margin as big players, their focus is on women making conscious educated choices first, says Deepanjali.

“We care about our women’s health. Once the product picks up and the volumes are higher, we are sure we will be able to break-even some time.”

They currently released the product in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida and planned to expand with the rising demand for their online channel opening.

Read more: Why Eco-Friendly Festivals Like Bengaluru’s Echoes of Earth Are Important in India

Being a woman entrepreneur and running a business in Gurgaon is not easy, confesses Deepanjali.

“It is a male-dominated sector. Our sales team is also predominantly women. When they go to stores, they get sceptical glances, because store owners generally want to deal with a man. The girls ask me, ‘Ma’am, how do we do it?’ And I tell them, ‘You have a voice and you have to make it heard. If one person won’t listen somebody else will. And when the product speaks for itself, people will want it. And till then. We keep going!” she beams.

She did face quite some challenges when many channels refused to shelf the product because it was new and they were unsure of its performance. But with the exceptional demand the concept Deepanjali nurtured, there is no going back for her.

The influx of emails and calls not only from India but also Africa, Dubai and Philippines are keeping them on their toes to push further.

Launched in Sept 2017, the only way for Deepanjali & Heyday is forward!

If you want to know more about Heyday, contact rohini@speakeasy.in 9971545456 or follow them on Instagram @heydaycare and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/heydaycare/

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“The future of India lies in its villages,” was what Gandhi had said. Unfortunately, these villages are today dying a slow death because the lure of the city life seems more attractive.

Some estimates suggest that 30 Indians move from a rural to an urban area every minute. SaveAGram – a social enterprise established in 2014 by Amala Menon – aims at preserving the villages as is, and supplement their income of the villagers.

SaveAGram is aimed at sharing with urbanites this hidden world and at the same time; bring a means of livelihood to villagers who otherwise have to throng to crowded cities in search of subsistence income.

We at The Better India caught up with Amala to understand her motivation for starting SaveAGram.

For Amala, the Uttarakhand region was no stranger. While she was working in a corporate job, she often went on treks. In 2008, during a trek in the Gomukh region, there was a landslide and she had to spend the night at a villager’s house. That was the turning point for Amala.

“I remember the girl of the house running out to pluck a pumpkin from their garden. She whipped up a dish with that and made some locally grown rice.”

“Not only did that satiate my taste buds but was also so fresh and completely chemical free.”

All the houses in this earthquake and landslide-prone region are made of mud. One of the qualities of mud is that it is one of the strongest materials you can build a house with. Amala realised, as she got talking to them, that while she was marvelling at the mud house, the villagers were longing for a house made of concrete.

“As I did some of my own research I understood that the houses made of mud in an earthquake-prone zone last longer, are far more sustainable, retain heat in winters and are cool in summers. Unfortunately, nobody in the villages valued the fact that they had 100-year-old houses,” she says.

What is the first image that comes to your mind when you hear the word village? Amala asks.

“My own understanding of villages underwent a lot of change as I started spending time here. These people are ‘freaky’ clean. So much so that the girl whom I stayed with also cleaned the bottom of the basin. They all have Indian toilets; it’s just not flushable but functions just fine, a place to bathe and a washbasin to brush their teeth.”

Though they have so much going for them; good fresh unpolluted air, chemical-free produce year long, and a higher quality of life, they seemed to take great pride in telling people that their daughter would be marrying a city dweller. Their self-esteem was close to zero and that was what Amala had to work on restoring.

“A majority of the men and women at Garwhal village are farmers. They have the means for sustainable living, but their produce is not marketed well.”

“Which is why marketing and selling their organic produce are part of our responsible tourism initiative,” she said.

When asked why she chose to develop a home-stay model, she says, “I have been asked this many times. In fact, some people even suggested that I sell pickles made by the villagers. The first thing is – these villagers don’t make pickles and the second point is I am not good at selling pickles. I wanted to use their inherent skills and mine to make this partnership work. They are hospitable people, and that is what works in our homestay.”

The idea behind SaveAGram is to showcase to the urban dweller what the life in a village is like. They insist on serving food that the villagers eat; most often they are organically grown and sourced.

Amala speaks of the sustainable model of farming that these villagers have been practising for years. These villagers are not poor; they produce enough and more food throughout the year. So while food wise they are rich, they feel economically poor and hence have a very low self-esteem.

Amala feels very strongly about preserving the village lifestyle. She says, “We spend so much money and travel abroad to experience the country and village life when we have such a rich heritage right here in our backyards. It’s time that we explore this.”

What SaveAGram has done for the villagers in Garhwal region is to give them an additional source of income and an avenue to explore other job opportunities without leaving their homes. Many of the villagers have chosen to become tour guides, some conduct classes on the local art, while some others are happy driving the visitors around the village.

“If by establishing these home stays we can stop at least 5 or 10 people from going to the cities to search for jobs then I will consider this initiative as a huge success,” Amala concludes.

In 2015 SaveAGram also established home-stays in Wayanad, Kerala. If you are looking for an experience of a different kind then so check out their website and visit their Facebook page for more information.

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We girls share a very special relationship with our mothers. They are the one person we love the most, trust the most and rely on the most. They are also the people who we fight with the most and pray to god that we don’t turn into them. No, while most of the time we don’t want to turn into our mothers, as we grow older we somehow find ourselves becoming exactly like them, just a more updated version.

While I have inherited my mom’s flair for overreaction and taking stress, I hope every day that I have also inherited the passion, hard work and immense strength that she shows every day.

My one passion is traveling. As cliched as it sounds, the only real goal I have in life is to see the world. Something I believe that I have also gotten from my mother. She being a geography teacher has so many stories and so many places on her travel bucket list, but with life and responsibilities she couldn’t fulfill every dream.

So, this time, when we were planning our mother daughter trip, I convinced a.k.a forced her to extend her trip for 3 more days and go to Siem Reap, Cambodia alone to see Angkor Wat in all its glory. It was something she had always spoken about and me thinking I’m doing a good deed took upon myself to arrange this mini solo getaway for her. Booked her everything from hotel to tours. I wanted her to have a little bit of that experience that I did my first time solo travelling.

I never expected her to chill at hostels and meet people and sing all night (yes I am slyly narrating a bit of my own story).

But I hoped that my mom would find how wonderful those moments of solitary can be when you visit a place you have always dreamt about setting foot in. How weirdly exciting it feels to realise that “I’m actually standing here”.

That is what I hoped and wished for when I convinced her to take this trip. But one thing I didn’t realise is that solo travelling may not all be about happy moments.

What I didn’t realise that why for a millennial like solo travel might be life changing and inspiring, for my mother it might be lonesome. I thought it would be a good break for her, get a couple of days to herself and feel relaxed. What I didn’t realise that with quiet moments of solitary, moments of feeling lost can also creep in. But I am immensely proud that she overcame that. No other Indian mom from the people I know would be able to do this.

Yes, my mother went on this trip, she saw the gorgeous waters of the never ending Tonle Sap Lake and the massiveness of Angkor Wat and other temples and took some stunning pictures like an Instagram pro!

I hope she enjoyed those few quiet moments exploring a little bit of a new world, learning about another country that might even remind you of your own. I hope she relished those few moments where she didn’t have to worry about her son’s exam marks or her daughter’s ‘struggling’ lifestyle in Mumbai.

I hope she cherished the time she stepped into Angkor Wat and saw one of the world’s most important historic monuments. I hope she will remember the struggle of waiting in a crowded airport for hours to catch her connecting flight and remember how she did it on her own.

Why did I make her do a small solo trip? Because I know that she is a strong woman who can handle the world if she wanted to. That age or a broken back won’t be able to stop her, no matter what she thinks. Because I know that feeling of a small accomplishment when you stroll down unfamiliar streets and go to a store or a restaurant and purchase something.

Because I wanted her to get a small glimpse of the world that is out there and help her understand that no matter what your age, it’s always going to be welcoming. I might not be able to convince her to do a trip on her own again, but I know that she will remember these couple of days where she was travelling alone and feel more confident.

Here’s what Ishani Roy (also known as my darling Ma) says,

“I was hesitant about going on a solo trip. However, my dear daughter coaxed, inspired and encouraged me to go, since for the longest of time, I had cherished a wish to see Angkor Wat. I went with a little sombre mood but when I finally reached Siem Reap and sat in the motorbike taxi, I felt very nice.

I felt all the excitement of seeing a new country, especially the stunning Angkor Wat. It was a wonderful experience, though I did feel a little lonely and anxious at times. Solo trip may give the feeling of freedom but it can also make you miss your loved ones.”

– Written by Yashodhara Roy.

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She was born in the beautiful valley of Kashmir. And even then, her life was anything but a bed of roses.

Baby Halder’s birth mother abandoned her at the tender age of four because she refused to put up with the domestic violence her drunkard husband would inflict.

And while she fled to be never seen again, she left a young Baby at the mercy of her abusive husband.

As a motherless child, Baby continued to suffer exploitation at the hands of her ex-serviceman and driver father and her stepmother, with whom she travelled from Kashmir to Murshidabad and finally to Durgapur in West Bengal, where she grew up.

Forced to quit school after grade 6, she was forcefully married off to a small-time decorator, who was 14 years older to her at the young age of 12.

Speaking to the Better India saying, “As a kid I remember the house being full of guests and how I was taken away from my friends, forced to be decked up, made to sit in a mandap with an older man I had never seen before. I kept thinking it was all a grand party or a pooja until I was asked to accompany the man to his home.”

At an age where most girls her age studied and played all day, Baby was a mother at 13. She remembers how women around her would tell her to slow down when she would run to play unaware that her jumping and prancing with kids in the neighbourhood could harm it. She was only a child!

Her prayers to not face the same fate as her birth mother fell on deaf years. The abuse that started on the dreadful night of her marriage when her husband raped her continued for 13 long years. Years of enduring domestic violence came to an end when Baby decided she had had enough.

In 1999, at the age of 25, Baby, then a mother of three kids, left her husband for good and escaped on a train to Delhi with her children to start a new life.

And if you have observed the lack of dignity with which most house-helps are treated in many homes across the country, you can imagine the humiliation she felt at numerous instances as a single parent and housemaid in New Delhi homes.

She bore the exploitation quietly, solely to support and educate her children, sons Subodh and Tapas and daughter, Piya. But like they say, there’s always light at the end of a dark tunnel.

Baby’s life was soon going to change because of one person she would continue to work for till 2015 as a househelp. This man was writer and retired anthropology professor Prabodh Kumar.

The old professor, also the grandson of noted Hindi literary stalwart Munshi Premchand, living in Gurgaon, would look on as Baby, then 29, would meticulously clean every corner of the home, sweep, swab and cook without uttering a word.

But every time she would look at his neatly stacked bookshelf, she would slow down, almost yearning to run her hands over the surface of the Bengali litterateurs’ works. Perhaps she would pick it out when nobody was looking, just to feel the fine print inside and keep it back. When the professor once asked her if she read, she recalls feeling embarrassed.

But the professor was perceptive enough to recognise the spark in her eyes, for reading. He was quick to offer her the books and soon enough what once started with a hesitant choice of Taslima Nasreen’s Amar Meyebela (My Girlhood) was followed by a host of novels by Ashapurna Devi, Mahashweta Devi, Buddhadeb Guha.

“Reading Amar Meyebela was as if I was reading my own story aloud,” she says. She continued to read and read until there was no going back.

It wasn’t long until Professor Kumar, before embarking on his trip to South India, handed her a blank copybook and a pen and told her to write.

Frustrated by the weird request, she almost cried. What was she going to write about?

The lost childhood she never had? The horror of the night when her innocence was ripped to shreds? The labour pain that ran up her spine at 13 while delivering her child? Or the scars that marred her body due to years of domestic abuse? Even the subdued memory of her sister strangled by her (sister’s) husband nagged at the back of her conscious.

What would she write about? The exploitation inflicted upon her that thousands of runaway women face as a domestic help, raising her children on the streets?

Well, the answer was yes. She wrote till all those repressed memories ran into pages into the notebook, filling it with ink, raw pain and unshed tears.

She thought of her birth mother whom she met in an unstable state years after all her kids were born. She thought of how one word from her sister’s mouth and a hand for help could have saved her from her tumultuous marriage. Perhaps she could be still alive. The floodgates of her past had finally opened, and she was drowning.

But it was more than 20 years since she had written in a book. She stumbled through spellings and sentence construction, but she never gave up. She was redeeming herself through writing!

It was soon a common sight in the Kumar household to see Baby perching her copybook on the kitchen counter, accommodating it between the chopped vegetables and cooked dishes and writing her memories down, as they came to her. She swept and swabbed, but she wrote her book through it.

This routine followed even before and after cleaning dishes and late at night after her kids were tucked safely into bed.

When the professor returned, she had already written over 100 pages! It was only when the retired professor read the manuscript, he knew this story deserved telling. Raw and heart-wrenching, her simplicity of writing had the power to pull the heartstrings of the reader. He cried as he read it and blessed her, encouraging her never to stop writing.

To avoid any bias, he quickly got in touch with some of his literature enthusiast friends Ashok Seksariya and Ramesh Goswami, who loved Baby’s work so much, they placed it on the pedestal of the Diary of Anne Frank.

And that’s how Baby’s first book, her autobiography, Aalo Aandhari (Light and Darkness) was translated by Professor Kumar, the father she never had and the guru she continues to revere, in Hindi.

Read more: From a Child Bride to India’s First Practising Woman Doctor: The Untold Story of Rukhmabai

Finding a publisher was not easy. After subtle rejections by many publishing houses that deemed the book unusual for their target audience, Sanjay Bharti, a small publishing house in Kolkata, Roshani Publishers, came to their aid.

Moved by her story, Bharti was all set to bear the risk of a loss. But Aalo Aandhari sold right from the first day it launched in 2002. People from all walks of life wanted to grab their copy. Baby’s writing had admirers from the sweepers to the retired headmistress next door. It immediately got extensive media attention as it threw light on the hard lives led by domestic servants in Asia, and within two years, it had published two more editions.

But for Baby, the best thing about her rebirth as an author is the regard of her new friends. “For the first time in my life, I feel confident that my story is worth telling, and in my own words.”

While the Bengali original, Aalo Aandhari (Light and Darkness) was published in 2002, a Malayalam version appeared in 2005. The English translation by feminist Urvashi Butalia, published in 2006, became a best-seller in India. The New York Times harked it India’s Angela’s Ashes.

Today the book has been translated into 21 local languages and 13 foreign languages, including French, Japanese, Korean and German.

Baby continued to write two more books and once she was financially independent moved to Kolkata where she continues to live with her children, Subodh, Tapas and Piya.

“Writing gave me the identity I never had. It is my life. How could I ever stop living my life?” she muses as she bids adieu.

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The Indian Navy on Wednesday got its first woman pilot and first batch of female officers in Naval Armament Inspection (NAI) branch.

An impressive passing-out ceremony in the Indian Navy Academy, Ezhimala, in Kannur, saw 328 cadets of the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard, and two overseas cadets, graduating after successfully completing their courses.

Shubhangi Swaroop, the Navy’s first woman pilot, from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh says to the Times of India “I know, this is not just an exciting opportunity but a great responsibility also”. She is all set to undergo pilot training at Dundigal Air Force Academy in Hyderabad.

Aastha Segal, Roopa A and Sakthimaya S, have been appointed as officers in the Naval Armament Inspection Branch, also a first in the history of Indian Navy. They hoped their achievement would motivate others to join the defence forces.

The areas of induction for female officers has expanded, since its inception in 1991, according to Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba, who reviewed the passing out parade and handed medals to nine meritorious midshipmen and cadets.

You may also like: Cadet 001: The Story of the First Woman Cadet to Join the Indian Army, Priya Jhingan

He also added that the professional training at the INA is designed to instil discipline, professionalism, courage and camaraderie amongst the young officers.

Featured Image Inset Photo Credit:- The Times of India.

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Violence against women in India is a harsh reality. What citizens, especially women, hope to say see is that people in positions of authority respond better to their concerns.

In a significant development, the Ministry of Home Affairs conducted a meeting on Wednesday to begin the process of designing comprehensive safe city plans for women in eight major cities.

As per an ANI report, the plan will be implemented in eight metropolitan cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.

At the meeting, the Union Home Secretary met with senior State and municipal officials to ascertain the steps they’ve taken to enhance the safety of women.

The aim of this exercise is to get police and municipal authorities in these eight cities to frame a plan of action that they would send to the MHA. Once these plans are received, a Steering Committee led by the union home secretary will make necessary recommendations.

Key issues under review at this meeting were 33% reservation for women in the police, higher deployment of women in police stations, emergency response systems, public transport, CCTV cameras, prevention of cyber-crime, and using technology to map out areas in the city that are unsafe for women, among others.

Women safety apps developed by police authorities across cities, use of social media, initiatives live mobile counselling vans, helplines, and other awareness programmes also came under review.

Read also: Railway Launches App to Ensure Safety for Women Commuters in Mumbai

One of the biggest developments coming out of the meeting was news that police officials are taking steps to implement 33% reservation for women in police.

While the police and municipal authorities send in their plans, you, the citizen, can post your recommendation on The Better India website or our social media page.

We will forward the best recommendation (and give you credit) in a letter to the MHA. Let the readers of The Better India also contribute to this discussion.

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Did you know women who legally adopt a child under three months of age are entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave from the date of adoption under the law?

Thousands of women across India juggle between motherhood and their role as working professionals. Working in high-stress environments, many times, these are the same women who are unaware of the legal rights that protect and safeguard them.

The Maternity Benefit Act passed in 1961, protects the right to employment of these women during the time of their maternity and entitles them a ‘maternity benefit.’ To be eligible for maternity benefit, a woman must have been working as an employee in an establishment for at least 80 days in the past 12 months.

This Maternity benefit is a ‘fully paid’ leave from work that pregnant working women or adoptive mothers are entitled to, to take care of their child. Under the law, this act applies to all establishments employing 10 or more persons including factories, mines, plantations, Government establishments, shops etc. and those notified by the Central Government.

This Law was amended under the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill 2017 and was passed in the Rajya Sabha on August 11, 2016, in the Lok Sabha on March 09, 2017. It received the President’s assent on March 27, 2017, and came into effect from April 01, 2017.

Here are all the laws working mothers should be aware of:

• If you still think the duration of paid maternity leave is only 12 weeks, then you are in for a surprise. According to the Maternity Benefit Amendment Act, women are now entitled to a paid maternity of 26 weeks. Women can avail of leave for a period extending up to 8 weeks before their expected due date, while the remaining 18 weeks can be availed post childbirth.
• Women giving birth for the third time are also entitled to a paid maternity leave. This lasts for 12 weeks, of which six weeks can be availed before childbirth, and the other half can be availed after the delivery.
• Women who legally adopt a child under the age of three months are also entitled to a leave of 12 weeks.
• Even commissioning/surrogate mothers are entitled to a 12-week leave from the date the child is handed over to her.
• Mothers also have the option of ‘work from home’, which they can avail after the expiry of the 26 weeks’ leave period. Availing this option also depends upon the nature of work and agreement with their employer.
• The law also makes it mandatory for every establishment with 50 or more employees to provide crèche facilities within a prescribed distance. The mother is allowed four visits to the creche a day including her interval for rest.
• Every woman who returns to work after delivery in addition to the interval for rest is entitled to two breaks during work hours for a prescribed duration to nurse her child until it is 15 months old.

Read more: Stopped by the Traffic Police? Here are Your Rights and Things You Should Know

• If a woman entitled to maternity benefit or any other amount dies under unfortunate circumstances before availing the benefit, the employer has to pay the amount to the nominee and in the absence of a nominee to her legal representative.
• A pregnant women worker is entitled to a maternity medical bonus of one thousand rupees if no pre-natal confinement and postnatal care are provided by the employer free of charge. This can be increased to a maximum limit of twenty thousand rupees. The Central Government is authorized to increase the basic amount every three years.
• In case of miscarriage, a woman is entitled to a maternity benefit, of six weeks immediately following the day of her miscarriage, after providing a proof stating the same. A woman suffering from illness arising out of pregnancy, delivery, premature birth of the child is entitled, to a leave of maximum one month after providing proof of the same.
• The law makes it mandatory for all employers to educate and make all women employees aware of the maternity benefits available to them at the time of their appointment.

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Smita Sabharwal may look diminutive in appearance but the no-nonsense 40-year-old has a tall list of notable achievements under her belt. A hardworking bureaucrat whose infectious passion for public service is matched by her sense of pragmatism, she is India’s youngest IAS officer to be appointed to the Chief Minister’s Office.

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Born in West Bengal on June 19, 1977, Smita originally hails from Darjeeling. Her father, Colonel PK Das, was an Army officer who was periodically transferred to different places. As such, Smita grew up attending school in many parts of the country, including Secunderabad and Hyderabad.

After graduating in Commerce from Hyderabad’s St Francis Degree College for Women, Smita (an All-India topper in ICSE Standard XII) was encouraged by her parents to appear for the civil service examination.

The quiet, hardworking girl did so and cleared the exam with flying colours, securing the fourth rank in the country. The fact that she was just 22 when she did this made her one of the youngest to have cracked the fiercely competitive UPSC exams.

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After completing her administrative training in Mussoorie’s Lal Bahadur Shastry National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, the Telangana-cadre IAS ofiicer got her first probationary posting to Adilabad district.

This was followed by tenures as Sub-Collector of Chitoor, Project Director at Kadapa’s Rural Development Agency, Municipal Commissioner of Warangal, and Joint Collector of Kurnool and Hyderabad.

From engaging with the public to building infrastructure in the Maoist hit areas, Smita’s well-planned and innovative ideas soon began bringing about much-needed change. One of her most popular schemes during these stints was the “Fund Your City” initiative in Warangal, under which a larger number of public utilities (such as over-bridges, bus stops, parksetc) were built through Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

Unsurprisingly, Smita’s stellar work on these deputations earned her much appreciation and goodwill. It also ensured that she was soon promoted to the rank of District Collector of Karimnagar, one of Telangana’s backward districts.

It was this tenure during which Smita’s people-centric initiatives evidence-based policy-making and rigorous programme evaluations earned her the moniker of “People’s Officer”.

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Distressed to see development work — especially in healthcare and education sector — languishing in the district, Smita immediately got to work.

On finding out that only 9% deliveries were happening at hospitals, she launched the ‘Amma Lalana‘ (translates to’mother’s nurturing’) scheme under which periodic maternal checkups were made freely available for poor women.

Smita followed this up by revamping government hospitals — sanitation and cleanliness were improved, staff requirements were filled, computers and internet facilities were installed in all hospitals and their functioning was monitored via Skype. This action was complemented by dedicated awareness campaigns to convince more women to come to hospitals for institutional deliveries.

The tech-savvy IAS officer also introduced a tailor-made software that gave a direct pointer to areas prone to anaemia, high-risk pregnancies, poor registration of antenatal and poor access to healthcare facility allowing the health department to focus on strengthening these core areas.

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In the office or at home, Sabharwal began logging on to this constantly updating system several times a day. This helped her to identify the areas that needed immediate medical intervention, to receive real-time inputs from health workers and to check doctor attendance at randomly selected Primary Health Centres (PHC).

Thanks to its immense success in reducing infant and maternal mortality rate, all districts in Telangana were soon asked to implement the Karimnagar model of encouraging institutional deliveries.

“If we give good, clean facilities, people will want to come to government hospitals. That’s the motto of Amma Lalana. Childbirth should be a happy event, not a burden for extremely poor families. We improved sanitation, got good equipment and trained doctors. People responded to that positively. I am happy to say that now the entire state is adopting this model,” the articulate IAS officer told FirstPost.

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Additionally, Smita introduced the concept of “dry days” – removal of all stored water and fill with fresh water – to check the breeding of mosquitoes caused by waterlogging.

Apart from being the driving force that lifted Karimnagar’s healthcare from the doldrums, she also initiated several schemes that made a substantial contribution towards the improvement of the quality and quantity of education in the district.

Smita used internet-based monitoring to log into welfare hostels and asks the kids about the food being served, the cleanliness of the campus and other enquires about their general well-being.

Apart from making these surprise online visits, she also kept checking the dashboard of a one-of-its-kind performance monitoring system of government schools to know whether weak students were being given special classes and whether there had been any improvement in their performance.

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These efforts proved fruitful — within a year, Karimnagar district topped SSC pass percentage in the state,  with 93.38% of its students passing the exam.

Furthermore, she introduced innovative ways to encourage and ensure voting in villages. For instance, under the “Voters Panduga” scheme introduced by her, vehicles were provided to remote villages so that its residents could make it to voting centres. Unsurprisingly, the district has one of the highest numbers of voters in that election.

Smita also launched “Praja Vaani”, a web-enabled grievance system in local language through which people could directly petition the District Collectorate every week.  Contrary to the expectations of the lackadaisical district authorities, petitioners (including the sick, the aged and the diabled) arrived in hordes from all parts of the district to submit their petitions for redressal at the weekly programmes conducted by their suave young Collector.

While her administrative brilliance fetched her widespread respect in the official circles, it was her instinctive thoughtfulness that endeared her deeply to the common man. In fact, thanks to Smita’s innovative initiatives, Karimnagar was awarded the best district in Prime Minister’s 20 Point Programme for the year 2012-2013.

A number of accolades and awards also came Smita’s way during this period, which the humble bureaucrat diligently and politely turned down. For her, making a tangible positive change through her work was rewarding enough.

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Soon after, in 2015, Smita broke the glass ceiling by becoming the youngest IAS to be appointed to the Chief Minister’s office as an additional secretary. However, as she set foot in her new post, she had an encounter with misogyny when Outlook magazine wrote an article about her, describing her as “eye candy”.

Not the one to take such obvious objectification lying down, Smita sued the Outlook magazine for its disparaging and sexist remarks about her. The publication later expressed its regret at the article and stated that it was not meant to be derogatory in any way.

“I feel that the world is ready for us only when we think we are ready for the world. I tell my colleagues and peers — ‘Competence and leadership have no gender’. If you are competent and focused, then no one looks at whether you are a man or a woman,” the pro-active IAS officer said.

Today, Smita Sabharwal has at least 20 fan pages and more than 5 lakh followers on Facebook, one of India’s very few officers to have such a huge fan base.  Not very surprising given that she of those rare government officers who combines an innovative mind with the ability to push new ideas through a slow-moving system.

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“Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand.”
—Patti Smith

Prostitution in India is unregulated. And in many scenarios considered illegal. Which is why sex workers do not have an audience for their woes. Regarded as “immoral” by a society with a skewed moral compass, they are most often denied basic human decency.

Trafficking is one of prostitution’s primary sources for new sex workers. Lured by the offer of a job, or even kidnapped, trafficked women have no idea what is in store for them till they find themselves locked up alone with a drunk, lustful “client”.

Jayamma grew up an orphan. After a tough adolescence and teenage, she finally met a man she loved and married. This man, over the course of time, started succumbing to alcoholism and forcibly sold Jayamma to a broker for sex work.

Kidnapped, repeatedly raped, beaten, sold, bought, wrongfully confined and harassed both mentally and physically, Jayamma decided to take up the cause of women in the same situation she was in.

#CIIWomanexemplar finalist, Jayamma quit sexwork to set up an NGO for edu, skills and protection of children of sexworkers pic.twitter.com/vtCsN1BAt6

— CII (@FollowCII) April 23, 2017

This was difficult, as these women were not willing to be identified or helped, scared of the network of undesirable elements.

With the help of Mr Jaya Singh Thomas, an NGO executive from the “IRDS” in Hyderabad, Jayamma began to slowly go about meeting these women, speaking to them and collecting their stories. Many were sold by their own husbands or forced into prostitution by unscrupulous pimps. Many had been promised a job in the city but abducted soon after.

There was an urgent need to do something for these women.

Jaya and Jayamma realised that everything cannot be done at a stretch. There needs to be a legal identity of the support system. From the period 1998-2001, Jayamma visited rural self-help groups.

Discussing the impact of domestic violence, she was still hesitant to reveal her identity. However, on 1st December 2001 (World Aids Day), Jayamma and around 300 women took out a rally, with a banner that ready. “Chaithanya Mahila Mandali”, an initiative for the betterment of the life of sex workers and their children in Hyderabad.

When the initiative began, the ill-treatment sex workers receive on a regular basis became apparent. Police harassment, negative media portrayal and outright refusal by landlords when looking for a place to live, are some of the issues sex workers in India have to deal with.

The Chaithanya Mandali went from station to station and assured the sex workers that they are looking to uplift them, and are non-judgemental, willing to help any woman who wishes to opt out of the system.

The children of sex workers who Jayamma had met in 1998 had turned to or were forcibly entered into full-blown prostitution by 2004 or 2005.

Hyderabad has no red light area. The sex workers go out and solicit clients. They also take their children with them. They do this because the children have nowhere to go, and the police will not harass them if they are seen with a child. Once they solicit a client, the child often accompanies his mother and the client, as they go about their business.

Sometimes, small children get abused in front of their mothers. These people were not in a position to come to the police station. There have been many such unfortunate and unreported incidents involving sex workers and their children.

The Chaithanya Mahila Mandali initiated a system by which the children of sex workers would be protected. Through their programmes, they have achieved success. The children are growing up well, many of them work in MNC’s and are settled abroad.

The initiative that started in Hyderabad in 2010 with ten children, today has 56 children living with their mothers. Thanks to the Chaithanya Mahila Mandali, these sex-workers can now try for other jobs. The mandal not only rehabilitates the sex worker and her child, but also carries out follow-ups to check whether the child is safe.

The Chaithanya Mahila Mandali today boasts of a variety of programs, working in urban slums and rural areas, and holding crucial workshops highlighting the evils of trafficking. Through this initiative, more than 5000 women and children are being supported. Jaya maintains that it all boils down to the next generation, the children, who have to be protected from pimps.

The Chaithanya Mahila Mandali also works closely with, the government schools and authorities, to keep an eye on human trafficking.

If the children are sensitised towards the evils of trafficking, the future generations might shun the terrible practice altogether, wasting no time in bringing the perpetrators of the same to justice.

The Chaitanya Mahila Mandali has been very successful in helping sex workers become re-enter mainstream society. The initiative takes care of the parentless and children of women forced into sex.

Jayamma, being in unfortunate circumstances herself, is able to empathise with these women who seemingly have no future. Even though she has won multiple awards, she remains focused on her ultimate goal—to successfully rehabilitate sex workers and their children.

Prostitution in India may not see legalisation or regulation anytime soon. If that does happen, then the industry will come out of the grip of the mafia that controls it. But till then, sex workers and their children will always face adversity. Right from the trafficker who kidnaps them, to the pimp who brokers them, to the client who abuses them, physically and mentally, to the society that casts them out, after fulfilling its lust.

You may also like: India’s First Ever School For Sex Workers, By Sex Workers

It is time that we humanise and sensitise ourselves, and make a conscious effort to rehabilitate and help sex workers and their children.

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The recently concluded AIBA World Women’s Youth Boxing Championships held in Guwahati saw Indian pugilists grab five top positions, thus finishing as overall champions.

A minor fire mishap was the only interruption in an evening which saw Nitu, Jyoti Gulia, Sakshi Choudhury, Sashi Chopra and Ankushita Boro win gold medals, causing an Indian sweep in the finals, with Jyoti even qualifying for next year’s Youth Olympic Games in Argentina.

Neha Yadav and Anupama picked up bronze apiece, thus rounding off India’s best performance at this event. It turned out to be a double celebration of sorts, as Assam girl Ankushita won the honour of being the best boxer of the tournament.

This medal haul ended India’s gold-drought, which has been prevalent since 2011. Ajay Singh, the President of the Boxing Federation of India, announced a cash prize of ₹ 2 lakh for each gold-medallist. He told PTI, “You are seeing the probable Olympic medalists for India at the Tokyo Olympics here. It has been a fantastic performance, and Guwahati has been a fabulous host.”

One of the four Haryanvi finalists at the event, Nitu, who was pitted against Kazakhstan’s Zhazira Urakbayeva, said, “It was an easier final compared to the semifinals. I did not find it too tough to break through.”

Jyoti’s match against Russian Ekaterina Molchanova was evenly contested, with both boxers matching each other punch for punch, bringing the entire stadium to its feet in the process. The taller Russian was no match for Jyoti, who was granted a unanimous victory.

Similarly, England’s Ivy-Jane Smith was no match for Sakshi Choudhury, despite seeming more dominant. Vietnam’s Ngoc Do Hong lost out to Shashi Chopra, and the last bout saw Ankushita taking on Russia’s Ekaterina Dynnk. The local girl who had just recovered from chicken pox before the tournament, won a hard-fought victory, pushing her to tears.

You may also like: These 35 Girls Share One Pair of Boxing Gloves, But They’re Sure Of Reaching the Olympics Someday

These victories in the ring for Indian women couldn’t come at a better time. Just recently, the International Olympic Committee mandated an increase in the number of women’s events from three to five, without allowing increased participation or the number of medals on offer. This means that these talented sportswomen, after their hard-fought victory at the AIBA event, will have a chance to add to their medal tally at Tokyo 2020.

Featured Image Inset Photo Credit:- India Today.

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Growing up in the spiritual heart of India, Varanasi, a young Anchal would look on as her father, an orthopaedic surgeon, would fix the accidentally injured and mutilated fingers of farmers free of cost. Unable to afford the treatment, the humble farmers would offer him foodgrains in turn for his service.

Fast forward to 2017, her three-year-old daughter looks on and sometimes even hold the torch as Anchal, now 34 and a successful ophthalmologist conducts medical camps or treats underprivileged patients, at her Netram Eyecare chamber in Delhi.

The choice to become an ophthalmologist stemmed from her own personal experiences as a child wearing thick-rimmed glasses, always in need of the ophthalmologist.

“I knew what it’s like when your strongest and most important form of sense is flawed. Even when you close your eyes for 10 seconds, you get restless. Imagine how meaningless world can get if you were to live in perpetual darkness or know you are approaching that stage where you will eventually stop seeing,” she says.

After having studied at some of the best institutes in the country like King George medical college Lucknow and Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi, it would be an easy choice to get into a corporate lifestyle, mint money and life the good life. But Anchal chose the road less taken.

“Sometimes it’s a complete chaos having massive outreach programmes and trying to make most underprivileged persons understand something as simple as glaucoma could make them blind and needs immediate treatment. While money is quantifiable, you cannot measure the happiness on the faces of my patients when they are restored their window to the world. That’s what drives me,” she says.

Following the philosophy of “Tamasoma, Jyotirgamaya” the Upanishads verse that calls out to the reciter to lead people from darkness into light, Anchal strongly feels every human being, transcending all barriers, has the right to a functional eyesight.

Having worked at Max Super Speciality, Saket, Max Multi-Speciality, Panchsheel and even Fortis Memorial and Research Institute, Gurugram, as its Head of Cornea Services, this young woman started her medical career in 2009 and made the switch to cater to the masses in 2012 through her Netram Eye Care Foundation.

What once began as affordable eye care in a small basement with basic equipment today is giving state-of-the-art eyecare facilities to those who can barely afford anything.

While her dedication to the cause is deeply emotional, Anchal believes in being practical. She has worked out a model where 10% of her earnings as a commercial ophthalmologist at Netram Eye Centre are then used to conduct camps, treat people and conducting surgeries for the Netram Eye Foundation.

While the foundation conducts all eye examinations free of cost, other facilities like spectacles, medicines and eye surgeries are done at nominal prices.

To extend her reach from CR Park to those who need eye care the most and make the mechanism logistically feasible, she involved cheerleaders. These were Anganwadi workers, local MLAs, social workers and opticians.

She partnered with opticians and designed the ‘Mini Tele-ophthalmology’ model, where she trains them to identify basic eye diseases, click clinical pictures of the patient’s eyes and share them via WhatsApp if they find some disparity.

This helps Anchal and her team of doctors to assess conditions of patients in far-flung areas just with the help of smartphones.

While patients are advised treatment after accessing their condition, those who have major eye issues or diseases that need immediate treatment are shifted to the base centre using her own Netram ambulance.

Even when camps are conducted, a minimum of 100 persons is required to cover the basic cost of setting up the camp. At these camps, glasses that usually cost Rs 2000 in the open market are subsidised and given to people at Rs 50.

With over 35 opticals co-branding themselves as Netram, Anchal’s team has established six full-time peripheral centres across Delhi NCR, with dedicated volunteers who carry on ground eye camps every single day.

Netram Eye Foundation also dedicates free OPDs on two days of the week completely to charity. The word of the free treatment goes out through volunteers and associated opticians to less privileged people like security guards, house helps, auto drivers, slum and pavement dwellers and senior citizens, who cannot afford treatment.

On other days, to help patients undergo affordable surgeries, similar cases are clubbed together, so the material and expenses are shared between them. The surgeries are conducted on a predetermined day.

The cost of pro-bono or free surgeries on charity days are covered by the revenue generated on the other days of the week.

Read more: Here Are 10 Lesser-Known Women Entrepreneurs in India We Can Celebrate

Under her 2016 project Roshni, she looped in Anganwadi workers who conduct glass checking on villagers and government school students and prescribe and distribute glasses on the spot, in the back of a van fitted with checking and glass fitting equipment.

Today Anchal and Netram Eye Foundation have reached conducted over 150 camps, with a turnout of at least 200-250 people in each. This number easily reaches over 60,000. Till date, the young ophthalmologist has also conducted over 5000 pro-bono or charity cataract surgeries.

Today Netram has a team of five doctors operating from a 5,000 sq ft setup, where each person who walks through the door is treated with compassion, led by the hand and assured they are going to be just fine.

For those who think one cannot make it big in any industry without the Indian ‘jugaad’, Anchal bursts the bubble calling it a myth.

“If you want to really want to be there, you just have to take the lead and show that conviction in your voice and work. And even with the work I have done, I am only at 1/10th of my journey,” she says.

What she sees in the future is a huge building. An eye institute training doctors and paramedics across North India with the philosophy of Tamasoma, Jyotirgamaya.

“While most of us have become mechanical and materialistic, no medical practitioner should ever forget we are healers first. This institute will be a place all eye-illnesses will be taken care of. Where people will have the faith that they won’t be cheated. Only the best care would be given, even if they can’t afford it at all,” she says.

To all women and readers out there, she says, “Nobody has the right to define you! It is you who define yourself! Spend some quiet moments with yourself every single day and follow your own drummer! No force can stop you from doing something with a good intention. And always remember – Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on fire!”

Connect to Dr Anchal Gupta at dranchal@dranchalgupta.com or 09810263100

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By receiving the Silver Peacock for her exemplary performance in the Malayalam film ‘Take Off’ at International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2017, Parvathy Thiruvoth Kottuvatta, who is better known as Parvathy, has only emphasised the fact that she is indeed one of the finest actors in Indian cinema.

Amongst the rising tide of female actors in Malayalam cinema, an industry renowned for its male-dominated acting force, Parvathy has made a rare distinction in the field with her choice of roles, which don’t fade away in the background but rather become the focal point of the film.

In ‘Bangalore Days’, the role of paraplegic radio jockey Sara made us believe that no disability could be a barrier, while Tessa in ‘Charlie’ taught us about never stop pursuing things that sets one’s soul on fire.

And how could one ever get over the heartrending tale of Kanchanamala from ‘Ennu Ninte Moideen’ that Parvathy forever engraved into our minds?

Having ventured into Bollywood with Tanuja Chandra’s ‘Qarib Qarib Single’, where she shares screen space with Irrfan Khan, the 29-year-old actor is rising to heights that no female Malayalam actor, or even actor for that matter, has reached until now.

Churning out fewer but quality films, Parvathy has shown no hesitation in working with lesser-known directors and newbie filmmakers, as long as the script manages to catch her interest.

In a time when seasoned actors release multiple films in a year that have same clichéd storylines, a young actor showing her integrity to the field of cinema with such passion is indeed remarkable.

Along with actors like Manju Warrier and Rima Kallingal, Parvathy is helping turn tides with roles that have redefined the screen presence of women protagonists in Malayalam cinema, instead of being the stereotypical arm candy included in the script just to increase the glamour value of the film.

In ‘Take Off’, Parvathy’s portrayal of Sameera, the gritty nurse stranded in Iraq, overshadowed every other performance and even overshadowed roles essayed by eminent actors like Fahadh Fasil and Kunchako Boban.

We congratulate the young, fiery actress for her spectacular win and hope that she continues to mesmerise us with her out-of-box films and exceptional acting skills.

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