Trailblazers: Two Indian Americans, Three From India in BBC’s 100 Inspiring and Influential Women
- They are joined from two women from Pakistan and one each from Bangladesh and Nepal.
Two Indian Americans — NASA astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams and 20-year-old AI expert Sneha Revanur — are among trailblazing women around the world in BBC’s list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2024. Also named are Indian social activist Aruna Roy, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, and Pooja Sharma, performer of funerary rites.
The women on this year’s list have had to dig deep and find new levels of resilience, BBC says. The British broadcaster says it “acknowledges the toll this year has taken on women by celebrating those who – through their resilience – are pushing for change, as the world changes around them.” The list also “remains committed to exploring the impact of the climate emergency, highlighting climate pioneers who work to help their communities tackle its impacts,” it added.
Sneha Revanur, 20, is the founder of Encode Justice, a global youth movement for safe, equitable artificial intelligence (AI) with more than 1,300 members across 30 countries. Her work seeks to mitigate the threats posed by emerging technology and include young people in critical conversations. A Student at Stanford University and a summer fellow at the Center for AI and Digital Policy, SHE recently became the youngest individual on TIME magazine’s inaugural list of the 100 most influential voices in AI.
When Sunita “Suni” Williams boarded the Boeing Starliner spacecraft on June 5, she was expecting to embark on an eight-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). But following a series of technical faults on board, she and her colleague Barry Wilmore were informed they would not return to Earth until February 2025. Despite now being away from friends and family 250 miles (400km) above Earth, she has embraced the extended stay with resilience and an upbeat attitude, describing the spacecraft as her “happy place.” She was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998 and is a veteran of two space missions, according to NASA. A retired Navy helicopter pilot and former record holder for the most spacewalks by a woman, she became the first person to run a marathon in space.
A campaigner for the rights of the poor in India, Aruna Roy is co-founder of grassroots organization Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). It focuses on transparency and fair wages, and was instrumental in the enactment of a landmark 2005 law enabling citizens to demand government accountability. Roy left a career in the civil service to engage more directly with rural communities. “Over four decades, Roy has been at the forefront of people-led initiatives, earning her multiple awards including the Ramon Magsaysay, often called the Nobel Prize of Asia,” BCC says. She is president of the National Federation of Indian Women and this year she has published her memoir, The Personal is Political.
A three-time Olympian, Vinesh Phogat is one of India’s most decorated wrestlers and a vocal critic of sexist attitudes towards women in sports. This year she became India’s first female wrestler to reach an Olympic final, but was disqualified after failing the weigh-in. She later retired from sport and has joined politics. “Outspoken about gender stereotypes, Phogat was the face of a months-long protest by Indian wrestlers against their federation chief, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was accused of sexually harassing female athletes — a charge he denied,” BBC says. The protest made headlines when police detained Phogat and others during a demonstration.
For the past three years, Pooja Sharma has been performing the last rites for unclaimed dead bodies in Delhi. “Her motivation comes from personal experience, having first performed the final rites for her brother after he was killed and nobody came to help with his funeral,” she said. She has faced resistance from priests and her wider community, because this role is traditionally held by men in the Hindu religion. “Despite the backlash, she has performed funerary rites for more than 4,000 people from different faiths and religions, sharing her work on social media and championing the cause to give everyone the dignity they deserve in death,” according to the BBC.
Two women from Pakistan are also on the list, along with one each from Bangladesh and Nepal.
Medical doctor and political activist Mahrang Baloch is among hundreds of women across Pakistan taking part in demonstrations against alleged enforced disappearances in Balochistan province. Her call for justice comes after her father was allegedly taken by security service officers in 2009 and found dead two years later with signs of torture. In late 2023, Baloch led hundreds of women on a 1,000 mile march to the capital Islamabad to demand information on the whereabouts of their family members. She was arrested twice during the journey. The medical doctor has since then become a prominent activist, under the banner of her own human rights group Baloch Yakjehti (Unity) Committee BYC.
One of Pakistan’s musical icons, Hadiqa Kiani is known for her versatile voice and her contributions to humanitarian causes. Rising to fame in the 1990s, she became a celebrated force in the South Asian female pop music scene, as well as a United Nations Development Program goodwill ambassador. In response to the devastating 2022 floods in Pakistan, Kiani launched her Vaseela-e-Raah project, dedicated to aiding victims in the regions of Balochistan and South Punjab. She urged the public to assist displaced families and last year, the project announced it had built 370 homes and other facilities in the affected areas, according to the BBC.
Rikta Akter Banu lives in the remote area of northern Bangladesh where “having an autistic or disabled child is seen as a curse, BBC says. When her own daughter, who is autistic and has cerebral palsy, was refused admission to their local primary school, she sold her land and built her own school instead. The Rikta Akhter Banu Learning Disability School “now enrolls 300 students and has made a positive impact on the community’s views around disability, BBC says. While the school was initially built for children who are autistic or have a learning disability, it now caters for young students with a variety of intellectual and physical disabilities.
Shilshila Acharya runs one of the largest plastic recycling networks in Nepal. Her waste management business Avni Ventures “employs staff from marginalized communities and focuses on getting more women into the green sector,” BBC says. The The climate and waste educator played a leading role in the 2014 No Thanks, I Carry My Own Bag campaign, “which led to a ban on plastic shopping bags.” BBC says. She is also behind a big annual clean-up in the Himalayas to remove rubbish left by mountaineers, “collecting 119 tons since 2019,” according to the BBC. Through her work, some of this waste is reused by indigenous craftswomen to create baskets, mats and jewelry to support their livelihoods.
(Top photo: Sneha Revanur, 20, founder of Encode Justice, a global youth movement for safe, equitable artificial intelligence (AI) with more than 1,300 members across 30 countries.)