Meet the first woman field officer of the BSF

After 51 years of existence, the Border Security Force (BSF) has made history by appointing its first woman field officer. Tanushree Pareek, a 25-year-old from Bikaner, Rajasthan, became the first woman to join the BSF in the officer rank. She had been selected after clearing the all-India examination conducted by UPSC in 2014. She had to undergo 52 weeks of an intensive training programme that comprised of training, intelligence gathering, and battle craft, among other border guarding tasks.

Tanushree was felicitated in a convocation ceremony held in the BSF Academy at Tekanpur in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior district. It was Home Minister Rajnath Singh himself who put the rank stars on her shoulder.

Arundhati Roy

                                

Arundhati Roy is an author, actress, and political activist. She was best known for the award-winning novel The God of Small Things (1997) and for her involvement in environmental and human rights causes. Arundhati’s father was a Bengali tea planter, and her mother was a Christian of Syrian descent who challenged India’s inheritance laws by successfully suing for the right of Christian women to receive an equal share of their fathers’ estates. Though trained as an architect, Arundhati had little interest in design; she dreamed instead of a writing career. She has campaigned along with activist Medha Patkar against the Narmada dam project, stating that the dam will displace half a million people, with little or no compensation, and will not provide the projected irrigation, drinking water and other benefits. In recognition of her outspoken advocacy of human rights, Arundhati was awarded the Lannan Cultural Freedom Award in 2002, the Sydney Peace Prize in 2004, and the Sahitya Akademi Award from the Indian Academy of Letters in 2006.

Mother of Orphans - Sindhutai Sapkal

Sindhutai Sapkal, affectionately known as the "Mother of Orphans",is an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for her work in raising orphaned children in India. She was conferred a Doctorate in Literature by the DY Patil Institute of Technology and Research in 2016.

Sindhutai Sapkal was born on 14 November 1948 at Pimpri Meghe  village in Wardha district 

 Maharashtra to Abhimanji Sathe, a cowherd by profession. Being an unwanted child, she was referred to as Chindhi . However, her father was keen on educating Sindhutai, much against the wishes of her mother. Abhimanji used to send her to school under the pretext of cattle grazing, where she would use the 'leaf of Bharadi Tree' as a slate as she could not afford a real slate because due to her family's limited financial resources. Abject poverty, family responsibilities and an early marriage forced her to quit formal education after she successfully passed the 4th standard.

She has devoted her entire life to orphans. As a result, she is fondly called 'Mai'(mother). She has nurtured over 1,050 orphaned children. As of today, she has a grand family of 207 son-in-laws, 36 daughter-in-laws and over 1000 grandchildren. She still continues to fight for the next meal. Many of the children whom she adopted are well-educated lawyers and doctors, and some, including her biological daughter, are running their own independent orphanages. One of her children is doing a PhD on her life. She has been honoured with over 273 awards for her dedication and work. She used award money to buy land to make a home for her children. Construction has started and she is still looking for more help from the world. Sanmati Bal Niketan is being built in Manjari locality at Hadapsar, Pune where over 300 children will reside.

At the age of 80, her husband came back to her apologetically. She accepted him as her child stating she is only a mother now! If you visit her ashram, she proudly and very affectionately introduces him as her oldest child! In person, she comes across as an unlimited source of energy and very powerful inspiration, with absolutely no negative emotions or blaming anybody.

Mandakini Amte

Mandakini Amte popularly known as Manda Amte is a medical doctor and social worker from Maharashtra, India. She along with her husband, Dr. Prakash Amte were awarded the Magsaysay Award for 'Community Leadership' in 2008 for their philanthropic work in the form of the Lok Biradari Prakalp amongst the Madia Gonds in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra and the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. She is the daughter-in-law of Baba Amte.

Mandakini Amte was born as Mandakini Deshpande in a family with staunch VHP ( Vishva Hindu Parishad ) background. Her father was a hard-core RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) man. She had completed her MBBS from Nagpur & later decided to do her post-graduation in Anesthesia. Prakash, her future husband, was a surgeon and that’s how they met. They worked together in the same operation theatre. Their values matched and they gelled well.

Her father was dead opposed to her marriage with Dr. Prakash Amte as he feared that it meant, she would have to live among lepers, which was a taboo then. Baba Amte called her over to Anandwan and asked if she was ready to live with Dr. Prakash in a jungle for the rest of her life. When she assured Baba Amte, consent to marriage was given & they got married.

Shreya Ghoshal

Shreya Ghoshal  is an Indian playback singer. She has received four National Film Awards, six Filmfare Awards including five for Best Female Playback Singer, nine Filmfare Awards South for Best Female Playback Singer (one for Telugu, two for Kannada, two for Tamil and four for Malayalam), three Kerala State Film Awards, one Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and several other major awards to date. She has recorded songs for film music and albums in various Indian languages and has established herself as a leading playback singer of Indian cinema.

Shreya Ghoshal is one of the highest paid singer in Bollywood and comes at the number 6th number in the highest paid singers in Bollywood with an amount of Rs. 7 lacks.

First women IAS officer in Independent India: Isha Basant Joshi

                                                                     


Isha Basant Joshi  is an Indian author. She published books under the name of Esha Joshi. She was the first woman to be accepted as an officer in the Indian Administrative Service. She was also the first "Indian" to be accepted into the "Bastion of the British" school of La Martiniere Girls High School in Lucknow, India.