As we come to the end of 2018, it is time to look back and celebrate the incredible women who made a difference through their work and efforts this past year. IWIite Anupama Jain applauds these (and many other) real-life Wonder Women who made a difference in 2018.

Another year winds down and it is time to reminiscence about the impact the year has had on us. Around me, countless intrepid women have been making headlines by breaking barriers in various fields.

This piece is a tiny attempt at honoring a few of these stellar ladies.

Politics

Sushma Swaraj has many firsts to her credit as BJP’s first female Chief Minister, Union Cabinet Minister, and Minister of External Affairs. One of the most tech-savy ministers, she is active on Twitter and responds quickly to issues faced by the people.

Sushma has received much love and respect of the public as she has actively helped many Indians who have faced serious trouble abroad. Among her many achievements, is the recent return of Hamid Ansari, who was incarcerated in Pakistan and returned home after six years, only on acccount of Swaraj’s efforts. His family has publicly acknowledged Swaraj’s role in getting him home.

Another politician who has made a tremendous impact this year is Atishi Marlena. A Rhodes scholar and former advisor to the Education Minister of Delhi, she has played a key role in leading the education reforms in Delhi and had spearheaded the Mohalla Sabha Project. Various initiatives like Mission Buniyaad, Delhi English Project, Happiness Curriculum have brought about a significant transformation in the way government-sponsored education is imparted.

Both these ladies truly exemplify using their offices to greater societal benefit.

Sports

Most Indians know the lion-hearted petite boxer, MC Mary Kom from Manipur. This mother of 3 broke all stereotypes and created unprecedented history with her sixth win at the World Amateur Boxing Championship. Nicknamed ‘Magnificent Mary’, this inspirational lady boxed her way to immortality by just not taking a ‘No’.

Badminton player and Padma Sri awardee P.V. Sindhu made headlines in 2018 when she won silver medals in Women’s Singles at Commonwealth Games 2018 and WBF championship 2018.

Their secret to success has been their supreme tenacity and unwavering focus.

#MeToo in India

On 26 September 2018, actress Tanushree Dutta in an interview, accused fellow actor and co-star Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her on the sets of the 2009 movie Horn ‘Ok’ Pleassss. This accusation became the catalyst for the surging #MeToo movement in India. Dutta had first talked about her trauma in 2008 by filing a complaint with Cine & TV Artists Association, but no action was taken. Tanushree had talked about the same in 2013 but was again ignored.

In September 2018, her complaint was finally addressed, resulting in a tide of #MeToo outpourings across India.

Thanks to her, women found the courage to come out in the open with their own accounts of sexual harassment.

Priya Ramani was the first among a dozen women who had named the Minister of State for External Affairs, M.J.Akbar accusing him of sexual harassment, resulting in his resignation.

Their bravery in the face constant judgment by media, no less than a trial by fire, is salute worthy.

Business

The Economic Times Startup Awardee 2018, Meena Ganesh is the managing director of healthcare startup Portea Medical, co-founded in July 2013.

Portea offers a range of geriatric, chronic and post-operative care services to patients at their homes. She is also co-promoter of almost a dozen startups, including Bigbasket.com, the e-grocery retailer, Home Lane, FreshMenu, the food-tech startup, and Bluestone.com – the online jewelry brand.

Rashmi Daga, recipient of The ET Startup Awardee 2018 for the Facebook Woman Ahead category, had floated FreshMenu in 2014, which offers a menu changing daily with recipes from around the world.

The menu includes keto-friendly meals, LCHP (low carb-high protein), and salad meals, making it popular with dieters and office goers. FreshMenu has about 35 cloud-kitchens and caters to 500,000 orders a month in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR.

These two women are out-of-the-box solutions in the world of Indian Business.

Social Impact 

Subhasini Mistry is the recipient of Padma Shri 2018 for social work. She is a one-woman army who toiled hard as a vegetable seller, manual laborer, for more than 45 years to build a hospital called ‘The Humanity Hospital’ for people who can’t afford medical care.

71-year-old Subhasini had pledged to build a hospital when her husband, an agricultural worker, died as they couldn’t afford medical treatment.

Humanity Hospital was inaugurated at Hanspukur near Kolkata, in 1996.

Her younger son, Ajoy works as a doctor in the same hospital and carries forward her vision of ‘greater good’.

While these women are only some of the trailblazers, there are others who have set glowing examples of using their talents and skills to create a positive impact in their respective fields.

In the world of entertainment, this year we were treated to spectacular performances from actors like Tapsee Pannu, Radhika Apte, Tabu, Neena Gupta.

The literary world too is full of powerful voices like Meena Kandaswamy, Harnidh Kaur and others.

2018 was certainly the year of strong female voices which made their impact despite the surrounding cacophony of fake news, contrarian opinions, sexism and misogyny.

2019 portends well with greater promises. Hope more and more women get prominence in the days to come.

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Anupama Jain is a writer and teacher based out of Gurgaon, India. She is the founding member of Senior School Moms and a blogger. Anupama is the author of the novel, When Padma Bani Paula.

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