Today, BBC revealed its list of 100 inspirational and innovative women for 2017. This year, the women on the list will be part of the 100 Women Challenge, tackling some of the biggest problems facing women around the world.
Here are the 9 inspiring women from India who made it to the list:
1. Aditi Avasthi
Aditi Avasthi is the founder and CEO at Embibe – an edtech platform looking to use tech and data science to revolutionize education.
2. Ira Trivedi
Ira is a founder of Namami Yoga Foundation. She is also an author, columnist, and yoga acharya. Through her writing, teaching and not-for-profit work, Ira Trivedi hopes to sensitise minds, bodies and spirits to feel the oneness that we are all part of.
3. Mehroonisa Siddiqui
Mehroonisa Siddiqui is 65 years old and is the proud mother of Indian actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
4. Mithali Raj
Mithali Raj is an Indian cricketer and captain of India’s women’s cricket team. She is the highest run-scorer in women’s international cricket and the only female cricketer to surpass the 6,000 run mark in ODIs.
4. Nitya Thummalachetty
Nitya is the Director of Diversity at FortunaPIXA. A healthcare entrepreneur and gender expert, Nitya believes technological innovation could mitigate social disparities in education and healthcare.
5. Priyanka Roy
Priyanka Roy is a 16-year-old student. She migrated from Ranaghat in West Bengal to Delhi a year ago and lives with her mother in TA Colony, Govindpuri.
6. Rupi Kaur
Rupi kaur is the author of Milk and Honey, the internationally acclaimed collection that sold well over a million copies gracing the new york times bestsellers list every week for over a year. Canadian-Indian author and illustrator Rupi writes on themes including love, loss, trauma, healing and femininity.
7. Tulika Kiran
Tulika Kiran is a teacher and a social worker. Tulika has been teaching children in the Tihar prison for the last eight years. She has also worked as a journalist.
8. Urvashi Sahni
Urvashi Sahni is the Founder and CEO, Study Hall Educational Foundation. She is a social entrepreneur, women’s rights activist and educationist of 34 years standing. She is a leading expert in school governance, curriculum reform and teacher training with a special focus on girls education and the use of technology in education. Apart from being an Ashoka Fellow, she is a Nonresident Fellow at the Center for Universal Education at Brookings and an adviser to the government of Rajasthan.
9. Virali Modi
Virali Modi was the runner-up at the Miss Wheelchair India contest in 2014. She is a motivational speaker, disability rights activist, model and actress campaigning to make railways more accessible to disabled women in India.
