India has produced some remarkable women: leaders, scientists, athletes and writers who did what few expected a woman to do and opened doors for those who followed. Here are 10 who have made India proud, worth remembering on International Women’s Day (8 March) and every other day.
1. Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy’s first novel, The God of Small Things, won the Booker Prize in 1997 and made her famous around the world. Since then she has written mainly essays, taking on big dams, nuclear weapons, inequality and human rights. Her second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, followed 20 years later, in 2017.
2. Bachendri Pal
On 23 May 1984, Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to stand on the summit of Mount Everest. In 1997 she led the First Indian Women Trans-Himalayan Expedition, which crossed more than 4,500 kilometers of mountains on foot. She has since trained generations of young climbers, and in 2019 she received the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honors.
3. Kalpana Chawla
Born in Karnal, in Haryana, Kalpana Chawla studied aeronautical engineering in India and the United States and joined NASA as an astronaut. In 1997, aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, she became the first woman of Indian origin to go to space. She died with her six crewmates on 1 February 2003, when Columbia broke apart as it returned to Earth at the end of her second mission.
4. Shakuntala Devi
Known as the “human computer,” Shakuntala Devi could solve enormous calculations in her head. In 1980, at Imperial College London, she multiplied two 13-digit numbers in 28 seconds, a feat recorded in the 1982 Guinness Book of World Records. She also wrote books on numbers and puzzles, and in 1977 published The World of Homosexuals, considered the first study of homosexuality in India. She died in 2013.
5. Tessy Thomas
Often called the “Missile Woman of India,” Tessy Thomas was the first woman to head a missile project in the country. As a scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), she led the Agni-IV and Agni-V long-range missile programs, and from 2018 to 2023 she served as Director General of DRDO’s aeronautical systems.
6. Indira Gandhi
India’s first woman prime minister led the country from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until 1984, when she was assassinated by two of her bodyguards. Her years in power, including the Emergency of 1975 to 1977, are still debated, but few doubt her strength as a leader. In 1999, a BBC poll named her “Woman of the Millennium.”
7. Neerja Bhanot
On 5 September 1986, Pan Am Flight 73 was hijacked during a stop in Karachi. Neerja Bhanot, the senior flight attendant, alerted the pilots, which kept the plane on the ground, and then helped passengers escape through the emergency exits. She was shot dead shielding children from the gunmen, two days before her 23rd birthday. After her death, she became the first woman, and the youngest person, to receive the Ashoka Chakra, India’s highest peacetime award for bravery.
8. Mary Kom
Mary Kom grew up in a farming family in Manipur, in India’s northeast, and became one of the most successful amateur boxers of her generation. She won the world championship six times, a record in women’s boxing, took bronze at the London 2012 Olympics, the first Olympic medal for an Indian woman boxer, and became the first Indian woman boxer to win Asian Games gold, in 2014. She received the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honor, in 2020.
9. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
Aishwarya Rai won the Miss World title in 1994 and went on to star in Hindi and Tamil films, becoming one of India’s best-known actors around the world. The Government of India awarded her the Padma Shri in 2009, and France honored her with its Order of Arts and Letters in 2012.
10. Kiran Bedi
A national junior tennis champion as a teenager, Kiran Bedi joined the Indian Police Service in 1972 as its first woman officer. She became known for reforming Tihar Jail in Delhi, work that earned her the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1994, and in 2003 became the first woman to serve as the United Nations Civilian Police Adviser. She retired from the police in 2007 and later served as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry from 2016 to 2021.
Empowering women today
Millions of women and girls in India still have fewer chances than their brothers to finish school, learn English or earn their own income. Local organizations are working to change that, and volunteers can help. In Delhi, our women’s empowerment program supports community centers in the city’s urban slums, where young women learn spoken English, reading and writing, computer skills and trades such as sewing. In Jaipur, volunteers on our women and girls program teach English to teenage girls and help with health, hygiene and literacy sessions at a community women’s center.
Read more about why this work matters, or email info@volunteeringindia.com to find out how you can help.