Women achievers of India-1

Dear veda,

You are absolutely right. But, I feel lot of awareness of women's problems, their rights is needed. The awareness about women achievers will motivate and inspire younger generation and certainly we will have Bharathi's dreams of 'Penn Viduthalai'. Some might ask ' why is this concern about women when you yourself is not a woman?'. My concern comes from my wife's dedicated work for women in India and I am certainly part of it.

Regards,

TDU

 

Continuing the list of women achievers, here are three outstanding women.

Dr. Kanwal Viku ,the Chief Medical Officer in CGMS was the only Indian Women in the worlds coldest continent,Antarctica for 16 months.

The continent has daylight for months in the winters.The temparature reach minus
58 c.The skua bird heralds summer.The sun rise after winter is a time for celebration..The sun rise for just four minutes;it rises from the east and sets in the east.

Dr. Viku was assigned the job of medical checkups of members.However she found time to walk 14--15KM everyday,climbing nunatics(hill peaks) and looking down deep crevices. We salute 51 year old Dr.Viku for her courage and determination to venture into the Antarctica,rough it out and enjoy the beauty of nature.

Sonia Puri a consultant has been given Special Millenium Award instituted by Bharat Nirman for her work with visually handicapped as a psycho-therapist.

Dr. Priyanka Mishra ,the 28 year old DSP of Bhind, and the first women police officer to be posted in the Chambal range has taken the dacoits as a challenge for herself.Gajjar one of the dreaded dacoit of the area has put up a price of Rs-5 lakhs for her head.

Bhind is Priyanka's first field posting and after the relative firmness of her previous posting in Bhopal, she is enjoying the rough and tumble.

 

Next, I am happy to introduce the first Air commodore in Indian Air force.


Air Commodore Padmavati Bandopadhyaya, after 32 years in the Air Force, is at 55, the first woman Air Commodore in the Air Force. And that is just one of the firsts in a long string of achievements to her credit.

Commissioned into the Air Force in 1968, Bandopadhyaya was the only woman in her batch of officers.

Graduating in 1967, she was the first woman to enter the field of aviation medicine. She was the first woman officer to have successfully completed the course offered by the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington.

She and her husband, Wing Commander S.N. Bandopadhyaya, were the first husband and wife team to be awarded the Vashist Seva Medal for their work during the 1971 Indo-Pak war:

She was the first Indian woman officer to have conducted research in the Arctic region. And she was the first woman to be made a fellow of the Aerospace Medical Society of India.

Coming from a conservative Tamilian family, educated in Tamil, when she joined the AFMC, Bandopadhyaya thought she had been paradropped into a whole new world.
Suddenly she was with people who ate with forks and knives, spoke in English and sang English songs. She could only eat using her fingers, spoke little Hindi or English, and knew no English songs. Today, Bandopadhyaya prattles in Bengali as well - a language she picked up after marrying a Bengali Air Force officer.
Trained in Carnatic classical vocal music ("like all south Indian children", she insists), Bandopadhyaya is fond of listening to music and likes mythology as well.

These days, her work as Commandant - entailing a whole gamut of administrative work - takes up most of her time. She does her yoga everyday and cooks elaborate meals - fish fries for the non-vegetarians and sambar for her vegetarian self - on weekends.

 

Thanks, Asha Rao for visiting the thread and posting your views. I would like to request you to put the profile of any woman achiver that you have come across.

Regards,

TDU

 

Next in the list of 'Woman achiever of India' is Fatima Bi from Andhra Pradesh.

Fatima Bi

This lady from Andhra Pradesh justifies the 33% reservation for women in the Panchayat posts. Elected as the 'sarpanch' from Kalva in Kurnool district of Andhra, she brought about a small revolution in her limited domain. Placing women's empowerment high on her agenda, she encouraged the women in her village to save a rupee from their earnings on a regular basis. Within a year the 260 women in her small group had saved almost Rs. 2 lakhs and were doling out loans to others who needed them. Today they are all financially independent because of this small but regular saving and of course, because of Fatima Bi. The United Nations has recognised her small but significant contribution and granted her The United Nations Race Against Poverty Award in 1998.

 

The following women achievers are of a different category. Only perseverance, bravery, love, affection, self-confidence, goal and the resolve made them great.

MAYA

She gave her Liver to her son. Liver transplantation is a very difficult procedure. She gave life to her son, by coming forward to donate her Liver.
The medical world says this is the first successful Liver transplantation in South India!
Maya belongs to Kerala.

DEEPRAMANI
Her husband left her and she had four sons. She did not lose heart and She started a small roadside hotel (Idly shop) and raised her four sons.
Today her first son, an MBA runs a big food catering enterprise.

MALAVIKA
Accident took away both her hands and legs. She did not lose confidence.
Bearing the pains with her artificial limbs she took 1137 out of 1200 in her 10+2 exams. And her dream is to become an I.A.S,

POOMARI
Her father, a fisherman became invalid, This girl affected by polio took the boat in her hands and goes fishing daily to support the family and make her sisters and brothers’ life happy and educated. She is not afraid of sea for fear, but worries that if the sea is rough, she cannot do her job.

LATHA
She has been looking after her husband, who is in Coma. She has two children. And she looks after them and takes care of them. Love and service like a Nurse and a true mother!

KALPANA
Girl studying +2 lost her father. And her mother who was sick was also absconding. She has a sister studying in 8th and a brother in 5th standard. She did not lose heart. She did servant-maid work in house, begged them and she also continues her education.
There is a proverb in Tamil “You can work hard and even beg to get education and wisdom”

ANURADHA
For 22 years she had suffering from muscular atrophy and losing her organ failure even today. She goes on a wheel chair and works at the Andhra Mahila Sabha. Sure we are all fortunate with all our organs and physique in good condition.

KALPANA RAO
Her daughter is invalid and dumb and in wheel chair always. She took the initiative and through “speech and communication therapy, made her daughter achieve good resiluts in the school.

PADMAVATHI
By birth she had very short hands. Her dream was to become an I.A.S. She got a merit seat in Madras IIT, but refused it. And her dream is to become an I.A.S. She says –“ We are what we think and become that.” Sure we wish her to be an I.A.S. Or may be she already is.

ANGAYARKANNI
Generally men only sing celestial or bakthi in Siva temples called “Oduvars”.
And she belonged to a lower caste not supposed to do that. The lady from Trichy, Malakottai fought against poverty, the tradition that males and upper caste should only sing.

And she is the perfect example that women, if they have will and knowledge, perfection and perseverance can equal men to sing on Lord Siva.

After all Lord Siva gave his half to women. Sure God does not discriminate. Men only do all things to bad (sometimes good) to women.

There are lot of women all over the world who are skilled and shine.

Thanks to, “Aval Vikatan”, an exclusive women magazine in Tamil

 

Neerja Bhanot, the brave 23-year-old air hostess who, risking her own life, saved the lives of passengers in a hijacked PAN AM flight in September, 1986. She was seriously injured by the hijackers’ bullets while shielding three children. Neerja was awarded the Ashok Chakra posthumously.



An award has been named after her called the Neeraja Banot Award and it is given to women who have shown exemplary courage in their personal lives.

 

One of the Neerja Bhanot award winner for the year 2000 — Alice Garg from Jaipur — has been engaged in a constant battle against injustice. The life of Alice not only inspire but also underline the significance of service and sacrifice — the two qualities which describe this woman best.



Starting from scratch, Alice has been braving one odd after another to get justice for exploited women. She has courted fear with a vengeance and has gone ahead to accomplish her chosen missions. She know courage is resistance to fear, not absence of it. Today, she has many reasons to justify her existence, and each reason is more powerful than the other.

Watching Alice Garg talk is like watching a dormant volcano swell up with lava. She seems to hide a tempest behind her calm exterior. One cannot but help wonder how the frail 61-year-old woman could have waged a war against well-connected criminals. Alice is credited with exposing many infamous cases of sexual exploitation against women in Rajasthan, including the Bhanwari Devi gangrape case which hit the headlines a few years ago and the J.C. Bose case, which sends shivers down the spine.

Alice has also helped in the rehabilitation of more than 4,000 migrant labourers, who now dwell in the Jawahar Nagar Katchi Basti in Jaipur. Alice says: "In 1975, the government demolished the slums, thus uprooting thousands of people. We, at Balrashmi, commiserated with them. The government was not prepared for their rehabilitation. So every time the government demolished the slums, they came up again. I helped them secure water and electricity connections. That was the first time I invited the government’s wrath."