Sports

Mary Kom
If anyone can outpunch Vijender, it’s the Manipur girl, Mary Kom. She, quite literally, fits the cliché of
golden girl after having picked up the World Boxing Title, five times in a row. The diminutive, shy, mother of
two, Mary wiped the floor with the world’s best pugilists to retain her title.
Mary Kom is the only boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six World Championships.
Unfortunately, Mary ended up with a bronze in the Asiad losing the 51-kg bout to Chinese opponent.
Krishna Poonia
Bringing a historic breakthrough in Indian track events can be credited to one woman- Krishna Poonia. The
national woman discus throw champion, Poonia ended India’s 52 year quest for gold in athletics at the
Commonwealth Games. She bagged the top medal in the track and field event, a feat earlier achieved by
Milkha Singh in Wales in 1958. Poonia led the clean sweep of the discus event by clearing 61.5 meters.

Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa

While Gutta’s Azharuddin connection might have made headlines, the shuttler chose to let her racket do the
talking at the Commonwealth Games. Along with Ashwini Ponappa, Gutta gave India the momentum to top
England’s medal tally.
The shuttler duo will remember the CWG 2010 throughout their life as their last minute triumph helped
India beat England in the medal tally. On the closing day of the CWG, Gutta and Ponappa paired together to
win gold in women’s doubles beating Singaporean duo of Sari Shanti Mulia and Yao Lei.

Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Chidananda, and Mandeep Kaur

Building on the success of Poonia, the golden quartet gave India another reason to be proud of their sports
women. Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Chidananda, and Mandeep Kaur bagged gold in the 4 X 400 m
relay at the Commonwealth Games. They proved that the CWG gold was not a fluke by adding a gold for the
same event at the Asian Games as well.
High on the confidence after back to back gold in both the event, the quartet promised to continue the
golden run at the London Olympics.
Ashwini Chidananda
Besides being a part of the historic quartet of relay runners, Ashwini also stole the limelight at the Asiad
clinching gold in the women’s 400 m hurdles with a timing of 56.15 to give India their 8th gold medal in the
Games.
Alka Tomar and Anita
If Sushil Kumar made a remarkable achievement this year becoming the world wrestling championship,
women wrestler Alka Tomar and Anita got better of their respective opponent at the CWG to win gold in 59
kg and 67 kg freestyle event. Once a world championship bronze medallist, Alka showed great presence of
mind and a solid defensive game to bring India gold.
Preeja Sreedharan and Sudha Singh
Long distance runners from remote corners of India made the nation proud winning yellow medal in the
women's 10,000m and 3000m steeplechase at the Asian Games.
Dola Banerjee and Deepika Kumari
The traditional game of archery which returned to the CWG after 28 years, saw Indian archers hitting bull’s
eye. Though men’s team faced setback and had to settle for the bronze, the women’s team including Dola
Banerjee, Bombayala Devi and Deepika Kumari, beat England in the final to bag gold. Deepika Kumari also
won individual gold in the CWG. Sadly, they could not continue their winning streak at the Asiad.

Indian eves also shone brightly on the kabaddi ground. The women team completed a memorable Asian
Games debut by clinching the gold medal with a comprehensive win over Thailand.
As Indian sports enters it's best phase in recent times, the modern Indian sport women emerge from their
shells to take their rightful place alongside their male counterparts. One can only hope that they are given
due credit and the applause never fades for these women who have made Indians proud with their
scintillating performances.

It won’t be wrong conclude that the best example of women empowerment in modern India can be seen in
the world of sports. But unfortunately their phenomenal achievements are less talked about.

a social worker

Nirmala Choudhary did not quite plan to become a social worker. Unlettered, married at 13, and the mother
of five children, she was in fact one of the first to bolt her doors when NGOs arrived at the Vishwanath Pur
village of Mishrik block of Sitapur district. Recalling that ten years later today, however, she laughs, pointing
to so many doors that have been shut in her face, as she has campaigned to let girls go to schools in a
district where the literacy rate is an abominable 49 per cent. In the process of putting girls through schools,
Choudhary herself cleared her class five exams, and leap-frogged into the '1000 Women for Nobel' list in
2005.

"My work gave me the opportunity to understand myself better", she says. Choudhary is an active
fieldworker with Mahila Samakhya, the government-sponsored programme launched in 1988 to educate and
empower rural women across 9 states. Being a harbinger of transformation is not the easiest thing in an
environment that resists change and actively promotes the status quo. Choudhary learned this the hard way,
when her own family came down on her for her reformist leanings. "I had police complaints lodged against
me that I was instigating fighting within the community, the panchayat routinely condemned me while the
village women ticked me off for corrupting their girls. Being a mother of four girls I was forever afraid that
something might be done to them. There were real threats of violence from my own caste, and the upper
castes. My husband wanted to leave me", she remembers.

But Choudhary persisted. Today as she goes about resolving disputes, imparting advice and encouraging
girls to be enthusiastic about their studies you realize that every bit of the respect she is accorded has been
won after a long fight.

"Social work is an empowering work option", offers V N Mishra, Head, Department of Social Work, Lucknow
University. "But like in any other work situation, women are doubly disadvantaged because of their sex and
the environment in which they are placed. Moreover the work itself is unstructured and completely people-
centric, and involves a lot of traveling. Also, it is somewhat daunting to say that one is a social worker and
be taken seriously; our society perceives this as something dispensable, for women to do in their free time.
There are also hardened images. A woman as a social worker is either a rabble-rouser or a Page Three
aspirant. It is difficult to imagine her as a serious professional."

The quantum of hurdles set in the path of women is relative to

the kind of work being done. Those projects which strike at
the social structure are resisted more actively than those
which aim at capacity building. Professor Rooprekha Verma,
(picture: right) a former Vice Chancellor of the Lucknow
University, and secretary of Saajhi Duniya, an organization
that battles violence against women, says the former are
viewed as acts of rebellion. "Women are never looked upon
as normal citizens and veer between thebechari and the
Phoolan Devi image. There are problems as soon as they
take stands that are uncomfortable for many."

But as Verma points out, there are issues which women can
handle better, ironically, by virtue of the very frailties that make them vulnerable. "Women victims are
more comfortable talking to women. Even men who work on women's issues, seek the help of women's
activists."

List of Famous Female Scientists

 • Trotula of Salerno was an Italian scientist, who is known for her works in the field of obstetrics and
gynecology. She taught men about women's health and wrote books, which were used by
physicians for hundreds of years. Trotula suggested the theory that men suffered from fertility
issues, which was considered controversial then. She even promoted opiates that dulled the pain of
labor during childbirth. However, this was opposed by church, which asked women to suffer the
pain of childbirth without medication. Trotula was an important figure in the understanding of
women's health. Major works: Passionibus Curandorum or The Diseases of Women
• Marie Curie is one of the most famous women scientists of her time. During 1867 to 1934, she lived
in Poland and France, where she attended the Sorbonne. She even received a chemist's license in
physics and mathematical sciences. Curie won a Nobel Prize, becoming the first woman ever to be
awarded this distinction. She devised a method to isolate radium, to study its properties. This
discovery later paved the way for cancer therapy. However, Marie Curie died of leukemia, which is
supposed to have been caused by her high exposure to radiation. Major works: Discovery of the
elements Radium and Polonium
• Maria Mayer was a German physicist. She is known for determining the shell structure of the atom
and the shell configuration, wherein the electrons are positioned. It is her model that is used by
most of the teachers within the classroom, to explain the composition of the atom. To the surprise
of many, Mayer also assisted on the atomic bomb project and was awarded a Nobel Prize for her
contribution in the separation of the isotopes of uranium. Major works: Determining the shell
structure of the atom and the shell configuration
• Rachel Carson was basically an important environmentalist who made the society aware of the
effects of DDT on crops and water systems. In effect, she was named to the Ecology Hall of Fame
and to the Top Twenty Most Influential Scientists and Thinkers for the Twentieth Century. Her
books are still read worldwide. Major works: Effects of DDT on crops and water systems
• Gertrude B. Elien was an American scientist, who lived from 1918 to 1999. She is well known for
her contributions in cancer research. Ellien is accredited for discovering many anti-cancer drugs.
For her efforts, she was even awarded a Nobel Prize. Major works: Discovery of anti-cancer drugs
• Jane Goodall is a well known woman scientist. She was born in England and is acknowledged for
her work with the African Gombe chimpanzees for over thirty years. She is an ecologist, who was
the first to discover the use of tools amongst animals. Even now, she spends around three hundred
days a year lecturing and sensitizing young people to improve the environment. Major
works: Work onAfrican Gombe chimpanzees
• Rachel Zimmerman is a Canadian scientist, who invented the Blissymbol Printer. It is a device that
allows non-speaking people, such as those afflicted with severe physical disabilities like cerebral
palsy, to communicate. It helps the user to correspond with the help of a program by pointing to
various symbols on a main page board with a special pad. On touching the symbol, the "Blissymbol
Printer" translates them into a written language, which can be communicated via e-mail. Major
works:Blissymbol Printer
• Virginia Apgar was born in Westfield, New Jersey. She is known for developing the Apgar Newborn
Scoring System, which significantly increased the infant survival rates. She even indicated that the
usage of some anesthetics during childbirth can negatively affect the infants. She pioneered
anesthesiology and also helped to refocus the March of Dimes Organization, from polio to birth
defects. Major works:Apgar Newborn Scoring System
• Rosalind Franklin was born in 1920. From 1951 to1953, she worked on the DNA molecule. She
took photographs of the B version of the molecule, with the help of x-ray crystallography. Though
her role largely went unacknowledged during her lifetime, she was later acknowledged for
discovering the helical structure of DNA. Major works: Discovered the helical structure of DNA.
• Alessandra Gillani was born in 1307. She was a surgeon and anatomist. While working as an
assistant to Mondino de Luzzi, who is well known as the ‘Father of Anatomy’, she specialized in
dissections for demonstrations and research. She pioneered the technique of injecting colored
liquids to trace the circulatory system. Major works: Discovery of blood vessels and circulation

Woman In parliament

Despite the tall promises made by political parties, the presence of women in the Lok Sabha has remained
a dismal 3.5 per cent to 9.02 per cent of its total strength since it came into being. The number of women in
the Lok Sabha has remained between 19 and 49 ever since the first general elections (1952), with the sixth
Lok Sabha having the lowest number of 19 women and the 13th Lower House having the highest at 49
members. However, as is evident from the result of the 15th Lok Sabha elections, there are 13 more women
MPs than the last House and 10 more than the previous best of 49 in the 13th Lok Sabha. This is a small
step forward towards increasing representation of women members in Parliament. For the first time in Indian
history the representation of women members has crossed the 10% mark.

While every major national party in recent years declared through their manifestos that they would
implement a 33 percent reservation for women in legislative assemblies and the Parliament, the records tell
a different story altogether. The representation of women in the Lok Sabha has basically remained stagnant.
It reached a “high” of 9 percent in 1999. This figure has not been crossed since then. Thereafter, it has
declined in 2004 rather than registering an increase.

Vasundhara Raje Scindia.

Vasundhara Raje was born on March 8, 1953 in Mumbai. She is daughter of Rajmata Vijayraje Scindia and
Jivaji Rao Scindia of Gwalior.She married former Maharajah of Dholpur, Hemant Singh, on 17 November
1972.She entered the politcs in 1984. She held a variety of posts in the BJP and was elected to the Rajasthan
Legislative Assembly in 1985.She is the BJP’s face in Rajasthan, though she comes from Gwalior in Madhya
Pradesh. She is the first women Chief Minister of Rajasthan.
From 1989 onwards she won four consecutive elections to the Lok Sabha from Jhalawar, Rajasthan. She held
a variety of posts in the Vajpayee cabinets, the most prominent being the Minister of State for External
Affairs.

In 2003, she shot to prominence by leading the BJP to its biggest victory in the state elections in Rajasthan,
where she represents the Jhalrapatan seat. Her son Dushyant Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha from her
former constituency.

In 2007, she was awarded “Women Together Award”, by the UNO, for efforts to assist women in self-
empowerment.

In 2008, her government is facing a tough challenge in handling the 2008 caste violence in Rajasthan.

Uma Bharti
she was born on May 3,1959 in Tikamgarh district in Madhya Pradesh in India. At a very young age she
became involved with Bhartiya Janata Party.She contested her first parliamentary elections in 1984 and was
defeated.She successfully contested the Khajuraho seat and retained it in elections conducted in
1991,1996,1998 and 1999.In the Vajpayee’s Administration, she held various state-level portfolios of Human
Resource Development, Tourism, Youth Affairs & Sports, and finally Coal & Mines.

In the year 2003 Assembly polls, she led BJP to a three fourths majority in Madhya Pradesh. She defeated
her Congress opponent from the Malehra seat with a 25% margin.

Sushma Swaraj
Sushma swaraj was born on february 14,1952 in Ambala Cantt. in Haryana. She took education at S.D.
College, Ambala Cantt. Haryana and got a B.A. degree. She completed LL.B. from the Law Department of
Panjab University, Chandigarh. She married Swaraj Kaushal on July 13, 1975 and has one daughter. She is

She was elected as a member of Rajya Sabha in 1990. she was the first woman Chief Minister of Delhi. In
1999, she took on a high profile as she contested against , Sonia Gandhi,who is the Congress party’s
President, and she was defeated by Sonia Gandhi.
She returned to Parliament in April 2000 as a Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand. She was Minister of
Information and Broadcasting, from September 2000 to January 2003.When Congress won the elections
Sushma Swaraj threatened to shave her head, wear a white saree and eat groundnuts, if Sonia Gandhi, the
Italian-born Congress leader, became Prime Minister.She was re-elected to the the Rajya Sabha in April
2006.She was president of Hindu Sahitya Sammelan for Four years.
Sonia Gandhi

Sonia Gandhi was born in Edvige Antonia Albina Mainoon in Italy on 9 December 1946.She is an Indian
politician, the President of the Indian National Congress Party(NCP). She married Rajeev in 1969. She is
widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi who is the son of the former PM of India,Indira
Gandhi.She is the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party. She was named the third most powerful
woman in the world by Forbes magazine in 2004 and currently she ranks 6th in the world. In 1984,she
actively compaigned against her sister in law Menaka Gandhi who was running against Rajeev in Amethi.

Sonia joined the Congress Party as a primary member in the Calcutta Plenary Session in 1997 and became
party leader in 1998.

Within 62 days of her joining she became the party president – a record for any Indian politician.

In 1999 she contested Loksabha elections from Bellary, Karnataka and Amethi, Uttar Pradesh . She won both
the seats. In Bellary she defeated BJP leader, Sushma Swaraj. In 2004, she was elected to the Lok Sabha
from Rai Bareli, UP.She was elected the Leader of Opposition in 1999.

Jayalalitha.
J.Jayalalitha was born on February 24,1948. She is the former Chief Minister and the current leader of the
opposition of the Govt. of Tamil Nadu. She is popularly called Amma by her followers.She was popoular film
star in Tamil Film industry before her entry in the politics.

She was educated at Bishop Cotton Girls High School at Banglore and later she moved to the Madras
Presidency along with her mother Sandhya.In 1981 she joined AIADMK and she was nominated for the
Rajya Sabha in 1988.With the help of M.G.Ramchandran who is also an actor Jayalalitha entered in the
politics.In 1989 she won the elections to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly becoming the first woman to
be elected as the Leader of the opposition.

In 1991 she was re-elected to the legislative assembly and became the first elected woman Chief Minister of
the Tamil Nadu.However due to anti-incumbency wave she lost the power to the DMK in 1996 in a landslide
defeat.She returned to the power with the huge majority in 2001 elections.In 2006 elections her party lost
the power to the DMK government.

In her latest speech she quoted that in future her party will rule India and would return to power in Tamil
Nadu.

Mamta Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee was born on January 5, 1955 in Kolkata.She is a Indian politician from the State of West
Bengal and currently under fire for her opposition to industrialisation. She is the founder and chief executive
of the All India Trinamool Congress Party.

She completed degrees in work education and an LLB (Indian standard of law degree) from Calcutta
University. In 1984, she became one of India’s youngest parliamentarians ever, beating veteran Communist
statesman Somnath Chatterjee, for the Jadavpur seat in West Bengal. She was also the General-Secretary of
the All India Youth Congress. She retained the Kolkata South seat in the 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004
elections.

In the Rao government formed in 1991, she was made the Union Minister of State for Human Resources
Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development.In 1993 she was discharged of
her portfolios . In April 1996, she alleged that Congress was behaving as a stooge of the CPI-M in West
Bengal. Mamta Banerjee claimed that she was the lone voice of protest and wanted a “clean Congress”.
In 1997, Mamata Banerjee split the Congress Party in West Bengal and established the All India Trinamool
Congress. It quickly became the primary opposition to the long-standing Communist government in the
state.
In 1999, Mamata joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and was allocated the
Railways Ministry.

In 2000,She presented her first Railway Budget. In it she fulfilled many of her promises to her home state
West Bengal. She introduced a new biweekly New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express train and four express
trains connecting various parts of West Bengal, namely the Howrah-Purulia Express, Sealdah-New
Jalpaiguri Express, Shalimar-Bankura Express and the Sealdah-Amritsar Superfast Express
Mamata Banerjee suffered further setbacks in 2005, when her party lost control of the Kolkata Municipal
Corporation and the sitting Mayor defected from her party. In 2006, the Trinamool Congress was defeated in
West Bengal’s Assembly Elections, losing more than half of its sitting members.

In November 2006, Mamata Banerjee was forcibly stopped on her way to Singur for a rally against a
proposed Tata Motors car project.

Mamata Banerjee forced car project Tata Nano to be relocated from West Bengal to Gujarat.

Sheila Dixit

Sheila Dixit was born on March 31, 1938.Holder of Master of Arts degree,Smt.Dixit received her education at
Convent of Jesus and Mary School, New Delhi and later in Miranda House, Delhi University. She was
married into the family of Shri Umashankar Dikshit, noted freedom fighter and a former Governor and
Union Cabinet Minister.
She is the Chief Minister of Delhi since 1998. She belongs to the Indian National Congress. Dixit is the
second woman Chief Minister of Delhi.

From 1984 to 1989, she represented Kannauj Parliamentary Constituency of Uttar Pradesh. As a member of
Parliament, she served on the Estimates Committee of Lok Sabha. She represented India at United Nations
Commission on Status of Women for five years (1984-1989). She served as a Minister in the Union
Government during 1986 – 89, first as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and later as a Minister
of State in the Prime Minister’s office. During 1984 – 89 she represented Kannauj Parliamentary
Constituency of Uttar Pradesh.

Smt.Dixit is longlisted for the 2008 World Mayor award. As Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dixit was awarded
the Best Chief Minister of India, by Journalist Association of India

In the early 1970s, she was chairperson of the Young Women’s Association and was instrumental in the
setting up two of most successful hostels for working women in Delhi.

She is also the Secretary of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust.

Smt.Sheila Dixit has been especially intrested in the promotion of handicrafts and rural artisans all over the
country.

Mayawati Kumari

Mayawati Naina Kumari was born on January 15, 1956 in Delhi. Her father Prabhu Das
was a clerk in the telecommunications department in Delhi. Her mother is Ram Rati.
Mayawati completed her graduation from Kalindi College in Delhi and holds a Bachelor
of Law degree.She also holds a Bachelor of Education degree and she was a teacher in
Delhi until joining full time politics in 1984.
She is current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.. She is the highest income tax payer
among all politicians in India.She payed 26 crore rupees for the year 2007-08.
In 1984, Kanshi Ram founded the BSP as a party representing the Dalits, and Mayawati
was one of the key people in the new organization. In 2001, Kanshi Ram named
Mayawati as his successor.
Mayawati first won for the Lok Sabha elections in 1989 from Bijnor. In 1995, while a
member of the Rajya Sabha, she became a Chief Minister in a short-lived coalition
government, and validated her position by winning from two constituencies in 1996.
Kumari was again Chief Minister for a short period in 1997, and then for a somewhat
longer term in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) from 2002 to 2003.
Mayawati ‘s party won the 2007 elections with majority and surprised everybody. On 13
May 2007 Mayawati was sworn in as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the fourth time .
In her tenures as CM , she has erected a number of monuments to Dalit heroes like
Dr.Bhimrao Ambedkar and others also of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj, Gautam Buddha.