10 Most influential women student leaders of India

So far, we have been coming across articles glorifying leaderships. But have you ever felt that those were all one sided?  None of them inculcated the contribution of women student leadership. Nor were they counted as ‘leaders’ so here, Aapka Times breaks the ice this time and releases the list of 10 most influential women student leaders of India.

Anshu Kumar
Anshu Kumar
Anshu Kumar hails from a small village of Begusarai district in Bihar. Being a woman activist she faced a lot of criticism from the society but she never stopped and continued her activism. Despite the fact that she belonged to a small village in Bihar, instead of encouraging her to excel, people spoke ill of her and barricaded her progress. Nevertheless, she didn’t allow the criticism to affect her growth like a true leader. She struggled for the restoration of democratic rights in Patna University which resulted into the restoration of students’ union after 28 years. She was the first woman ever to be elected as the General Secretary of Patna University Students’ Union in 2015.

In her tenure of being the office bearer, she faced serious charges of attempt to murder which were false allegations and the case was registered by the Vice-Chancellor, Shambhunath Singh. It was after two months that the case was withdrawn by the administration and her admission was restored. During Bihar elections, she campaigned for left parties in Bihar despite being a woman who is very challenging and courageous.
She is pursuing M.Phil from Jawaharlal Nehru University She did M.A. in commerce and B.Com from Patna University.

Arumita Mitra
Arumita Mitra
Arumita Mitra, youngest student leader, studying B.A honours in Philosophy from Jadavpur University, came up with the international movement against police atrocity and molestation in campus, ‘Hok Kolorob’. She faced threats from TMC for her radical involvement and giving leadership to such a movement. Along with that she led the movement against moral policing called ‘Kiss of Love’. She gained popularity through her spontaneous fiery speeches which gained support from everyone and not only the student community. Arumita kept on raising issues of women. She and her friends opened up a new platform called ‘Periods’ which undertook the daring task of eradicating the taboos relating menstruation and victim blaming, slut shaming. She was show caused by the university authority but later the authority repealed it for her intense resistance.
She is a member of many forums and women organisations like DTDH and AIPWA. Lately, due to strong support to Kanhaiya and justifying the slogans of azaadi, ABVP demanded an arrest on her name, yet her courage and determination didn’t stop her from raising her voice against every injustice in the society.

Chintu KumariChintu Kumari

Chintu Kumari created history when she was elected as the General Secretary of JNUSU in 2015. The first Dalit girl to be elected as the general secretary in JNUSU history.She hails from a small Village Korodihri of Sahar block in Bhojpur district of Bihar.
Chintu Kumari is pursuing MPhil on ‘Politics of land reforms in Bihar’ from Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU), she did BA (Hons) with first division in political science from Indraprastha College, then she joined DelhiJNU in the Centre for Political Studies for post-graduation course. She belongs to a very poor family and her mother still sells bangles from door-to-door in the remote areas of the Sahar block. Her father Lalji Ram is still a committed CPI-ML leader in Bhojpur district.

Dipsita Dhar
Dipsita Dhar
She has been an active participant in students’ politics from her graduation day. She joined CPIM’s student wing SFI in 2010 after witnessing the brutality by Trinamool goons who killed Sudipto Gupta ,a 23-year-old SFI student leader inside the campus. During these years of activism several times she was physically assaulted and fake cases were put against her but were all proved fake. She became the Acting President of SFI of Asutosh College Unit and District committee member of Kolkata district.She came JNU in 2013 and became the Councillor for school of social sciences with 2nd highest number of votes in JNUSU 2014 and this was the first victory in JNUSU after disruption in 2012 inside SFI. She also contested for the post of vice president in 2015 and came 3rd with around 1100 votes. Her bold voice and her sloganeering renowned her fame.
She was a part of the Student Politician Delegation to United Kingdom along with 8 others from India organised by the British High Commission in December 2011. Currently she is the unit President of SFI JNU, Vice President of Delhi State Committee and Central Secretariat member of SFI.She is pursuing M.phil from Centre for Regional Development, JNU, on Post partition refugee settlement and influence of caste.
She did her graduation from Asutosh College Kolkata, in Geography and her schooling from a small town named Bally in Howrah, West Bengal.

Hasiba Amin
Hasiba Amin
Hasiba Amin came into limelight after appearing in Congress party ad campaign – ‘Kattar soch nahi yuva josh’ and it was followed by a major smear campaign by the opposition. Hasiba is the first Gaon( People of Goa is known as Goan) to ever become the National Secretary of NSUI since 1971. She worked as the National Secretary incharge of digital communications from 2015 and managed to take social media in the organization to a high level. In 2014 she was appointed as the National Secretary in-charge of Daman & Diu, Dadra Nagar Haveli, as well as governed the Social media. In 2012, she was elected as the first woman and minority state President of Goa.
She is the co-founder of the NGO – Goa Going Green which works on environmental issues. Under the banner of her NGO, she started a massive campaign called plastic free campus campaign in which she got great response. As the state President, her major achievement is to persuade the BJP state Govt to start counselling cells in all the high schools and colleges due to the high increase in suicide cases.
She had also filed an FIR against Madhu Kishwar for revealing the name of the rape victim in the Tarun Tejpal case and followed it up with the National Commission for women. Hasiba is pursuing MBA from Osmania University after doing law from Goa University.

Mahamedhaa Nagar
Mahamedhaa Nagar
Mahamedhaa Nagar, former Vice President of Miranda House, DU is a final year literature student and has been working as a social activist. She represented India as a youth women’s leader in USA in the Study of United States Institutes. She further plans to hit DUSU elections in the upcoming session. She was also the youngest SAARC delegate in a conference recently held on the issues of Minorities in South Asian countries. Mahamedhaa, who always believes in experimenting, is all high to break the stereotypes tagged both to her community and activism. She’ll also be seen on MTV RoadiesX4 with her message of “Elevating Women’s Voices”.
This gurjar girl is known for her bold attitude in ABVP as she has been detained, lathicharged and manhandled several times during the protests. Mahamedhaa’s areas of concern lie in issues of Sexual Harassment, Women’s Leadership and Women Empowerment. She was at lead in major protests like the ones for Nirbhaya, Juvenile Justice Bill, NON-NET UGC fellowship, etc. She dreams to launch a newspaper- “FOR THE WOMEN, BY THE WOMEN” which will showcase stories of acid attack survivors and bring to notice the real heroes of our society. For young girls, she says, “what you are looking for is not out there, it is in you, believe in yourself a little more!”

Nikita Azad

Nikita caught attention of people when she started a campaign, last year, against menstrual taboos ‘Happy To Bleed’. She has also filed an intervention in Supreme Court challenging the custom of not allowing women in Sabrimala temple, Kerala.
She has also worked in a student organization in Punjab, currently she is active in women’s movement. She is doing ground level researches into menstrual taboos and lack of menstrual care among women in villages and slums.
She has been contributing by her consistent articles on social – political issues that concern the masses. Currently she is pursuing B.A English Honours (semester 4) from Government College Girls, Patiala.

Priyanka Shukla
Priyanka Shukla
Priyanka Shukla belongs from an economical poor background family of Kanpur.She has been active in social activities and led many students protest in Chhattisgarh. She has been a part of various movements for students, women, and farmers. She has been constantly working for the rights of Adivasis in the leadership of noted adivasi rights activist Soni Sori. She is also appointed as the state president of the Chhattisgarh by the CYSS, the student wing of Aam Aadmi Party.
Priyanka is pursuing Masters in law from Dr. C. V. Raman University, Chhattisgarh. She studied law from Ram Gopal Singh University, Chhattisgarh and did her graduation from Khalsa girls’ college, Kanpur.

Richa Singh
Richa Singh
Richa Singh created history in October 2015 when she was elected as the first woman president of Allahabad University Students’ Union (AUSU) after independence. She was the first woman to be elected to the post of president in the history of the Allahabad University.
She has been working in difficult circumstances in the varsity as it has a strong presence of ABVP. She is an independent leader and is not associated with any political party. She gained national attention when she successfully led the massive agitation against BJP’s Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur, Yogi Adityanath and stopped him from entering into the university’s premises because of his “controversial and communal” background. He was invited as the chief guest to inaugurate a new building at Allahabad University.
Richa Singh is doing her PhD at the globalization and development studies centre of Allahabad University. She was a gold medalist in her M.Phil in women’s studies. She did MA in Economics.

Shehla Rashid Shora:
Shehla Rashid
Shehla Rashid Shora is the first Kashmiri girl who was elected as the the Vice President of Jawaharlal Nehru University students’union.She is associated with AISA and has been working for the women’s rights and victims of acid attack in Kashmir since a very young age . She was a leading face during the ‘Occupy-UGC’ protest in November 2015. She took charge of leading the protest when JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested over the charge of sedition. Shehla is pursuing MPhil in Law and Governance from JNU. She studied political leadership at IIM Bangalore after doing Engineering from NIT, Srinagar.

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