On December 03 2024, London (the United Kingdom (UK))-based British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) released the 12th edition of BBC’s 100 Most Inspiring and Influential Women List 2024. This latest edition of the list has featured 3 Indian women.
- Former civil servant and renowned social activist Aruna Roy; three-time Olympian-turned-politician Vinesh Phogat, and performer of funerary rites, Pooja Sharma, for their exceptional contributions to social activism, sports and breaking societal barriers.
- Apart from them, the list has included two Indian-origin women: Sunita Williams, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Astronaut and Sneha Revanur, 20-year old Artificial Intelligence (AI) expert.
- The theme of the 2024 list is “Resilience”.
Note: In 2023, 4 Indian women: Actress Dia Mirza, Cricketer Harmanpreet Kaur, Photographer Arati Kumar-Rao and Tibetan Buddhist nun Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, were featured on the BBC’s 100 Most Influential Women List.
Key Highlights:
i.The list is organised into 5 main categories: Culture & Education; Climate Pioneers; Entertainment and Sport; Politics and Advocacy; and Science, Health and Tech.
ii.Aruna Roy is named under “Politics and Advocacy”,Vinesh Phogat is categorized under the “Entertainment and Sports ” while Pooja Sharma has been named under the “Culture and Education” category.
iii.Other noted women featured on the list: Hollywood actress Sharon Stone from the United States of America (USA); Nobel Peace Laureate Nadia Murad (Iraq); Climate campaigner Adenike Oladosu (Nigeria); writer Cristina Rivera Garza (Mexico), among others.
About Indian Women’s on the BBC’s List 2024:
About Aruna Roy:
i.She has served as an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from 1968 to 1975.She is one of the founding member of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS)established in 1990, played a pivotal role in the enactment of the Right to Information (RTI) Act in 2005.
ii.She served on National Advisory Council of India from 2004-06 and 2010-13. she played an important role in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in 2005.
iii.At present, she is serving as the President of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW).
iv.Her activism earned her notable awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award (2000) and Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award (2010).
v.She released her memoir titled ‘Personal is Political’ in 2024.
About Vinesh Phogat:
i.Vinesh Phogat, is amongst India’s most accomplished wrestlers and a strong advocate against sexual harassment towards women in sports.
ii.She was the 1st India woman wrestler, who won gold at both the Commonwealth Games (2014, 2018 and 2022) and Asian Games (in 2018)
iii.At the 2024 Paris Olympics, she became the first Indian female wrestler to reach the final but was disqualified for being 100 grams overweight in the women’s 50 kg event. She announced her retirement afterward.
iv.In 2024, she joined Indian National Congress (INC),contested her 1st ever election in Haryana Assembly Elections held in October 2024, and was elected as Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Julana constituency.
Pooja Sharma:
i.Pooja Sharma has performed funeral rites for unclaimed bodies in Delhi. she faced lot of criticism from priests and the community in general, as per tradition last rites are performed by men in Hindu culture.
ii.She is the founder of Bright the Soul Foundation and performed more than 4,000 funerary rites in the last 3 years across different religions and faiths.
Indian- American Women in the list
i.Sunita Williams, a retired United States (US) Navy Helicopter pilot, has been recognised under the ‘Science, Health and Tech.’ category.
- She is a former record holder for the most spacewalks by a woman and the 1st person to run a marathon in space in 2007.
Note: On 5th June 2024, Williams embarked on an 8-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, but technical glitches extended her stay to 8 months and now, she is expected to return to Earth in February 2025.
ii.Sneha Revanur, founder of Encode Justice, a global youth movement which is mobilising more than 1,300 members across 30 countries to advocate for safe and equitable AI.
- In 2023, she was named as the youngest individual on TIME magazine’s inaugural list of the 100 Most Influential People in AI.
About British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC):
Chairman- Samir Shah
Headquarters- London, the United Kingdom (UK)
Established- 1922
