President felicitates 112 first ladies

President Ram Nath Kovind has felicitated 112 exceptional women achievers at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi. These women achievers ‘FIRST LADIES’ are those who are first to set milestone of achievement in their respective fields. This ‘First Ladies’ is second leg of the ‘100 Women Achievers’ campaign of the Ministry.

Key Facts

These 112 women were selected after extensive research process by Ministry of Women & Child Development (WCD). They are those who have been first in any field like first woman judge, first woman porter, first woman to head missile project, first para-trooper, first Olympian among others. Their felicitation aims to inspire other women to break the glass ceiling and do women of India proud.
Among those who were honoured by President include

• Bachendri Pal: first Indian woman to reach the Mount Everest summit;
• Deepa Malik: first woman to win a medal at the Paralympics;
• Priya Jhingan: First Lady Cadet to join the Indian Army;
• P V Sindhu: Olympic silver medallist
• Nicole Faria: winner of the Miss earth title;
• Karnam Malleswari: Olympic medal winning weightlifter Karnam Malleswari
• Anshu Jamsenpa: First Indian woman to scale Mt Everest for fifth time.
• Chhavi Rajawat: India’s first woman Sarpanch
• Diana Edulji: First ODI captain of the first ever Indian Women’s Cricket Team.

Background

Every year on March 8 (Women’s Day), WCD Ministry honours Nari Shakti Puruskars to those women who have contributed to society but have remained unsung. These awards are conferred by President of India at Rashtrapati Bhawan. The WCD Ministry in 2015 had collaborated with Facebook to recognise ‘100 Women Achievers’ who have excelled in diverse sectors of public work. It started to recognise different ways those women who have broken the glass ceiling and ventured into unusual fields.