Women achievers of India-1

Ruth Manorama

Social Activist

Ruth Manorama is India's most effective organiser of and advocate for Dalit women, belonging to the 'scheduled castes' sometimes also called 'untouchables'.



Ruth Manorama is a Dalit woman. Born in 1952 in Madras, her parents escaped the worst consequences of being Dalits by becoming Christians. In 1975 Manorama took a Master's degree in social work from the University of Madras and has trained in both the community organisation methods of Saul D’Alinsky and the conscientisation methods of Paolo Freire. In 2001 Manorama was granted an honorary doctorate "for the distinguished contribution made to church and society" by the Academy of Ecumenical Indian Theology and Church Administration.

Manorama has been consistently associated with a range of issues – the rights of slumdwellers, domestic workers, unorganised labour and Dalits, and the empowerment of marginalised women. She stresses the interconnectedness between these issues, and the common cause that marginalised people share the world over.

Her work crosses the borders between grassroots movements, mass mobilisation, and international movements.

Manorama's working life has been spent on organisation building, mobilisation of people and advocacy on behalf of Dalit women through a large number of organisations. She is:
- General Secretary of Women's Voice, founded in 1985, to work with women in slums, struggling for land, shelter and survival rights of the urban poor.

- President of the National Alliance of Women, set up following the Fourth World Conference of Women in Beijing in 1995 to monitor government performance on its various commitments to women and lobby for change.

- Joint Secretary of the Christian Dalit Liberation Movement, formed in the 1980s to mobilise Christian Dalits for affirmative action.

- Secretary of the Karnataka State Slum Dwellers Federation.

-Secretary for organisation building of the National Centre for Labour, an apex organisation of unorganised labour in India.

-President of the National Federation of Dalit Women (NFDW), set up in 1995.

In addition, she has a number of regional and international roles (Asian Women's Human Rights Council, International Women's Rights Action Watch – Asia – Pacific, Sisters' Network). She has also been a member of the Karnataka State Planning Board, the State Commission for Women, the Task Force on Women's Empowerment of the Government of India and a number of other state and national bodies.

Ruth Manorama was chosen to be included in "1,000 women for Nobel Peace Prize 2005".

 

Ashminder Kaur Dhadialla, a Sikh lawyer, was born in Nairobi, Kenya on 17 November 1974. She left Kenya as a teenager and first studied science in Canada before rounding off her law degrees with a Masters at Oxford University in England. Ashminder participated in the 1995 World Debating Championships and was Secretary of the Oxford Univeristy Womens Blues Squash Team.



Following graduation from Oxford, Ashminder worked for leading international law firms and companies, including Clifford Chance LLP in London, however, her key interest remained in undertaking pro bono human rights work and in preserving Sikh culture, history and theology.

Away from corporate finance legal work, Ashminder spends a minimum of ten hours a week on unpaid pro bono work which ranges from assisting in domestic violence disputes to working with international human rights groups on complex and politically sensitive cases of alledged genocide or crimes against humainty. Ashminder also takes a keen interest in legal issues affecting women in her native country, Kenya and the structure of the Kenyan legal system, and prepares restructuring proposals in this regard.

In 2002, to counter Sikh under-representation at leading Universities, Ashminder founded "The Sikh Scholarship Foundation", a charity that provides grants and scholarships to leading Universities, such as Oxford, for Sikhs. The aim is to extend this programme to other under-represented state-less nations with distinct cultures, such as the Bushmen of South Africa and the Aboriginals of Austraila by 2009. All Scholars undergo a parallel programme of study to learn about their own culture, history and theology and to ensure they are equiped and capable of competently addressing the various social and relevant issues facing their communities.

 

Dear madhu11,

Thanks for reading the thread and posting your appreciation.

Regards,

TDU

 

Baby Palak: A voice worth millions

She is only 13 years old and she cannot be called a woman yet. I am glad to introduce a girl who definitely finds a place among the Women achievers of India.

She will sing in Pakistan in aid of children. She has built shelter for sex workers' kids in Nagpur. When many children her age pester their parents to provide them with all the luxuries possible, this little girl persuades all parents to forego a little luxury to help mend the hearts of little children, whose lives would be cut short for want of money for heart surgeries! While our Bollywood stars charge lakhs of rupees to dance or even be present at celebrity weddings, here's a young girl who will sing any-where but gives away all the money to charity!



Fame and adulation can make you go heady, especially if you are just 13 years old. But Baby Palak Muchhal is different. Having been featured in almost all the print and electronic media, this child is indeed very modest. Though gentle as a swan, she has a heart of a lion! A singing prodigy, she has raised more than Rs. 75 lakh for heart operations for the poor, especially young children.

Going about her mission "Saving Little Hearts", Palak has contributed for 142 heart operations so far and has 357 patients on the waiting list! 'God has given me some talent and I should thank him by doing what little I can for the society. Jab tak gaata rahoongi, tab tak garibon ke liye kuch to karti rahoongi' (I shall keep doing something for the poor till I keep singing), she says in an interview.

 

Dear Sriniketan,

I am glad to note that you are reading and appreciating these women achievers. I should thank the administrators of IL for having put these threads as sticky so that more ILites can read and get benefitted. I agree with you that Baby Palak is indeed is great. having a large heart to donate at this tender age is praiseworthy.

Regards,

TDU

 

Piu Sarkar

Artist

If the eyes say it all, then Piu Sarkar's creations with their large almond-shaped eyes, speak volumes. Her canvases have lovely women with arresting features, quite absorbed in their own world. It is almost as thought they have no cares or worries. "That's quite right," says the self-taught artist, Piu. "I paint women who are enigmatic and sensual; women who have a mind of their own."



Piu herself seems like an extension of her canvases. She is a lovely person, well read and absolutely passionate about her work. The latter evolves around stree shakti, which is the liberation of women that were embodied in mythology and folklore. "The series is also a story of my journey as a woman. It is not a voice against the man's world but her existence and evolution from pages of epics to entertainment," she states.

One of her paintings was inspired by a scene from 'Pather Panchali', a Bengali classic. Charulata or Shakuntala are influenced by old Bengali classics of Bibhuti Bhushan Bandhopadhaye, Tagore and Kalidas.

"All the women that I paint deal with a similar undercurrent of pressure and need strength to sustain them. It is here that the shakti comes in," she explains.
Piu admits that images of women icons of Indian mythology have been her real inspiration as they reflect the social and political strategy of a woman's status from the past to the society in today's times. "The series of my creations have been influenced by eyes and motifs of Ajanta Frescoes, Pala Art of Bengal, Mewar Miniatures and Mathura/ Gandhara Patterns, etc. I have depicted the flavour of Indian Culture and Classics in an individualistic language and presented it in a contemporary palette of Indian Pop Art," she adds.

The striking depiction of these women icons have already won Piu admiration from eminent artist Jogen Choudhury and actress Sushmita Sen. "I did not know that Sushmita had bought my paintings until much later. She then called me up to tell me that the image had 'strength' in its eyes," she says.

For the artist says it's going to be women power that will occupy her canvas for some time. After which she will see what else catches her fancy.

Piu Sarkar has been awarded the 'Woman achiever of Calcutta' recently.

 

Dadi Janki born in 1916, has pioneered, exemplified and shared with countless numbers of people a structured and disciplined method of spiritual development that has had a profound impact on the lives of millions across the world.


As a founding member of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, joining in 1937 at the age of 21, she became one of the world's first female spiritual leaders. With an unrelenting search for honesty and cleanliness in her relationship with God, Dadi has developed an inspiring vision of the unique potential of every human being. This has enabled her to become a highly effective spiritual entrepreneur.

Since 1974, when she left India for the first time to base herself in London, England, she has overseen the establishment of centres teaching meditation and spirituality in over 90 countries.

Dadi Janki was designated a Wisdom Keeper at two United Nations conferences: The Earth Summit in Brazil (1992) and Habitat II in Turkey (1996), as part of an eminent group of spiritual and religious leaders advising on the spiritual dilemmas underpinning current worldwide issues of the environment and human settlement.

Together with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, HH the Dalai Lama and Prince Hassan of Jordan, Dadi is an international Patron of Rights and Humanity, an organisation promoting respect for human rights. Dadi is also a Global Council Member of the International Museum of Women.

Dadi has promoted inter-religious understanding and co-operation throughout her life. She is a Patron of the World Congress of Faiths and a member of The World Council of Religious Leaders and The Global Peace Initiative of Women.

She is also the founder and President of the Janki Foundation for Global Health Care, launched in 1997 at the Royal College of Physicians as a charitable trust.

Now aged 89, she still travels extensively, enabling leaders from the worlds of politics, religion, medicine, science, education, psychology and other fields, as well as individuals at every level of society, to absorb spiritual strength by renewing their own link with God