No revolution has ever been done without the involvement of a Woman. From Rani Lakshmi Bai to Sarojini Naidu, each of the battles required Woman and needless to say Woman however tough the circumstances are, never fails to amaze us!
Women ever since centuries have been on the throne and on the battlefield and so are women today doing their bits to bring a change to society. Every motion to spread requires someone who takes the accountability to execute the action, is strong-willed and stubborn to reach conclusions. We as Society should respect and celebrate such Women, because they inspire the ones who fear and question their worth.
A list of Women Activists who have voiced their opinions and brought a change to the Society!
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Aruna Roy
The Woman behind the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), a grassroots organisation which works towards the upliftment of workers and peasants. She is an alumni of Indraprastha College of Delhi and also has won awards like Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 2000 and Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academia and Management. She also has worked for the Right to Information Act.
In the year 2011 Aruna Roy made the country proud by being listed in the ‘100 most influential people across the world’ by Time magazine.
Aruna Roy
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Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva born in Dehradun, managed to lay the foundation of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology in 1982.
She has been acknowledged for doing things against genetically modified seeds and protection of native seeds that led to the formation of Navdanya, a national movement aimed at protecting the integrity and diversity of living resources. She is also a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award in 1993 besides that she has also won the 2010 Sydney Peace Prize, and was listed in the BBC ‘100 Women list’ in 2019.
Vandana Shiva
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Medha Patkar
The strongest personality for the Narmada Bachao Andolan, each one of us is aware of what all Medha Patkar has done in order to solve issues of farmers, tribes ,dalits, labourers, and women facing injustice in India.
Apart from this Medha is one of the founders of National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), which is an alliance of hundreds of people’s organisations.
Her work has been acknowledged and she has been awarded awards like; Right Livelihood Award (1991), Goldman Environmental Award (1992), Green Ribbon Award by BBC (1995), Person of the Year BBC (1999), Mother Teresa Award for Social Justice (2014), and many others for her work towards Environment and Under privileged section of the Society.
Medha Patkar
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Viji Penkootu
Viji an activist from Kerala has played a major role in the ‘Right to Sit’ activism by the female workers of the state. In 2009, she founded Penkootu, a women’s group which means ‘women for each other.’ Viji also is a leader of the Asanghaditha Mekhala Thozhilali Union (Union for workers of unorganised sectors). Her revolution made an impact and the government of Kerala made amendments in the laws to provide a better working environment for women- proper breaks, fixed working hours, and the “right to sit”.
She is one among the three Indians on BBC’s prestigious ‘100 Women 2018.’ bringing laurels to the Country.
Viji Penkootu
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Pramila Nesargi
Pramila is an Indian lawyer, a well-known women’s rights activist. A first woman to be elected in the past 50 years to the Karnataka Bar Council as Chairman of the Bar Association. She has done recognisable activities such as submission of reports to the Government of Karnataka and India mentioning issues such as child labour, house and rent control, domestic violence, prisoners plight, and sexual violence at work.
She is also the head of Pramila heads Samragni Swa Udyog Trust, an organisation whose aim is upliftment of women and special children. In the year 2018,she was awarded Bharatiya Manavata Vikas Puraskar by the Power brands for her commendable work towards the society.
Pramila Nesargi
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Malala Yousafzai
In 2014, a 17- year old girl from Pakistan who won the Nobel Peace Prize and turned out to be the youngest person to win this Nobel Peace Prize. In 2012 she was shot by a Taliban gunman in the head. Her recommendable work is that she showed defiance to the Taliban in Pakistan and fought demanding that girls should be allowed to receive education.
Malala Yousafzai
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Kirthi Jayakumar
Kirthi Jayakumar a peace educator, a women, peace, and security practitioner, lawyer and writer.She is a Commonwealth Scholar, a Vital Voices (VV) Lead Fellow, a VV Engage Fellow, a Local Pathways Fellow, and a World Pulse Impact Leader. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts not only this she is also the founder of The Gender Security Project, an initiative working towards the cross section of gender, peace, security, and transitional justice through research, reportage, and documentation.
Kirthi Jayakumar
Written By- Rituja Roy
Edited By- Priyanka Sukhwani