Spanning diverse regions of the country, these brave women are redefining the narratives of resilience, transformation, and impact. From earning a place on the esteemed BBC 100 Women to being celebrated in the Forbes India W-Power, these changemakers are the epitome of transformative India.
The women on these lists are making the highest efforts to promote community service and rural empowerment, uplifting the underprivileged, fostering education, promoting gender equality, advocating anti-trafficking and anti-harassment measures, and garnering respect for all. Here is a list of the most influential women who made great strides in various fields this year.
1. Aruna Roy
Roy is an ardent supporter of the rights of India’s marginalised and underprivileged. Roy has a more than forty-year career and is tenacious in her attempts to improve the local communities. After years of serving in the Indian Administrative Services, Roy left the prestigious job in 1967 to work for a cause she believed in, i.e., uplifting rural communities and eradicating the issues affecting them.
In 1990, Roy and a few other like-minded champions of the cause laid the foundation of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) in Devdungri district of Rajasthan together. The MKSS worked to empower labourers and farmers by advocating for fair wages, transparency, and government accountability. Later, her organisation gained public recognition for its work in uncovering corruption in the public sector and laying the base for the Right to Information (RTI) movement. In 2011, Roy was included among TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2000 for her outstanding community-based advocacy leadership.
2. Pooja Sharma
Pooja Sharma is an incredible young woman who has challenged the traditional practice of performing funeral rites by men. During the past few years, she has cremated around 4000 unclaimed dead bodies in Delhi. Sharma is the founder of Bright the Soul Foundation, an organisation that works for the welfare of marginalised communities. She is often criticised for performing the last rites—a domain reserved for men in the Hindu faith—by priests and her community alike.
As per Bright the Soul Foundation’s website, she performed the last rites of her brother, who was murdered in front of her eyes, and nobody came forward to help. This sad incident transformed her life and is the reason that regardless of the backlash, she is performing the funerary rites of people from different faiths.
3. Vinesh Phogat
Phogat, a gifted wrestler, has brought glory to India with her gold medal wins at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, and various championship tournaments. In 2024, she created history by becoming the first Indian female wrestler to reach an Olympic final. However, her journey to win the Olympics ended unexpectedly when she decided to disqualify herself before the match since she did not fulfil the requisite weight standards.
Phogat has been a vocal opponent of sexism in sports and actively participated in the months-long demonstrations organised by Indian wrestlers against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the head of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), allegedly having harassed female athletes. She gave up wrestling following the Olympics and entered politics. As an Indian National Congress (INC) candidate contesting in the Haryana Assembly Elections, she secured the Julana constituency seat. People throughout the country are motivated by her unrelenting efforts towards gender equality in sports.
4. Jayanti Buruda
Buruda, a tribal woman of the Koya community from the Malkangiri district of Odisha, has pushed through stereotypes to become the first woman journalist from her district. She is a zealous champion in empowering members of her tribe. Her passion for social work ignited when she tutored the children of labourers in the slum area of Malkangiri district despite her family’s opposition. Following this, she decided to volunteer for the Indian Red Cross. Soon she realised that her path was not easy as she faced gender discrimination at every step of the way, leading her to pursue journalism.
Well ahead, she became the inaugural winner of the NWMI Fellowship for Women Journalists in 2017, which gave her the necessary support to perform the job. She started Jungle Rani, a creative endeavour highlighting Indigenous stories sometimes disregarded by mainstream media, in 2023. For her community, this platform has evolved into a compelling voice illuminating topics and experiences firmly ingrained in tribal existence. She has been quite helpful in ensuring that Indigenous people have access to and control over their natural forest resources by working with the Bharti Institute of Public Policy, therefore increasing Community Forest Resource (CFR) rights.
5. Safeena Husain
Husain has become a convincing advocate for girls’ education in rural India. Growing up in New Delhi’s slums, she faced several challenges, including pressure to drop out of school. Despite these hurdles, she persisted, finishing her education and eventually moving to the London School of Economics. Driven by her educational path, she founded Educate Girls in 2007. Since then, the company has registered more than 1.4 million girls—particularly in underprivileged regions like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.
In 2023, she was honoured with the renowned WISE Award in recognition of the amazing job that she had done in the field of education. Her efforts have enabled a great number of young women to recognise the value of education as an asset that lasts a lifetime and cannot be replaced.
6. Ranima Das
For the past 17 years, Das has consistently provided support to women and children in the remote village of Parakhowa, Assam. Das became involved when the government neglected to build a suitable nursery in her neighbourhood. Providing food and education for children aged 3 to 6, she transformed a small room in her house into a temporary nursery. Das continues to serve her neighbourhood by accumulating vital health and nutritional statistics and providing prenatal care to expectant women.
Das is an Anganwadi worker who guides children into school and finally the workforce, thereby helping her town to grow. Das, like many in her field, does have significant challenges. She works tirelessly, yet she only makes a paltry ₹6,500 a month and occasionally faces poor working conditions. Still, she keeps fighting for greater pay, a dedicated facility, and better services for her neighbourhood—showcasing remarkable resiliency and commitment to her cause.
7. Ruchira Gupta
Gupta has committed her life to stop sex trafficking and empower women caught in the vicious cycle of trade. Her journey began in 1994 when she uncovered the trafficking racket of females from Nepal to Mumbai brothels. Far along, she made a documentary, “The Selling of Innocents,” which earned her an Emmy Award. Gupta utilised this forum to promote more robust anti-trafficking legislation, therefore helping the U.S. Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 to succeed. She co-founded Apne Aap Women Worldwide in 2002 to help disadvantaged women and girls escape the sex trade by providing education, healthcare, legal help, and employment opportunities.
Over the years, Gupta has assisted more than 20,000 women and girls to escape prostitution as well as aided in reducing intergenerational prostitution in places like Kolkata and Bihar. Her work also includes gentrifying red-light neighbourhoods of Mumbai, transforming brothels into small companies, and giving survivors self-sufficiency. Gupta has been honoured internationally for her work; she has received the Clinton Global Citizen Award and the French Ordre National du Mérite, among other recognitions. Her work at present consists of advising roles at the United Nations and as a professor at NYU, where she shapes the next activists. Gupta is still a relentless advocate for the most defenceless women and children in the world to eradicate child trafficking.
These women’s paths are inspirational and capture the actual core of leadership and effective social work. People all around respect and recognise their efforts. It is rather remarkable for everyone who witnesses change and dares to bring it to pass. These women spark hope for a brighter future. Their stories serve as a reminder of the importance of keeping up the efforts till we observe outcomes.
This is by no means an exhaustive or representative list. Suggestions to add to this listicle are welcome in the comments section.
