Malvika Iyer | |
---|---|
Born | 18 February 1989 [1] |
Nationality | Indian |
Alma mater | |
Known for | Motivational speaking, Disability rights activism |
Malvika Iyer (born 18 February 1989) is an Indian national, a bilateral amputee from an accidental blast while picking up a diffused grenade, a social worker, [2] [3] [4] and a National Awardee. [5] [6] She is an international motivational speaker [7] [8] [9] and a disability rights activist, [3] [10] [11] [12] advocating for building an inclusive society. [13] [14] [15] She is also a model for accessible fashion. [16] [17] [18] Iyer obtained her Doctorate in Social Work from Madras School of Social Work in 2017. [19] [20] Her doctoral thesis is on the stigmatization of people with disabilities. [11] [21] [22]
Iyer was born on 18 February 1989 in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu [23] to B. Krishnan and Hema Krishnan. [24] [25] She grew up in Bikaner, Rajasthan, where her father worked as an engineer at the Water Works Department. [25] On 26 May 2002, at the age of 13, Iyer lost both her hands when she accidentally picked up a diffused grenade that exploded in her hands at her home in Bikaner [3] [26] [27] and sustained severe injuries to her legs including multiple fractures, nerve paralysis and hypoesthesia. [28] After 18 months of hospitalization (involving multiple surgeries) in Chennai, Iyer began to walk with the aid of crutches and was fitted with prosthetic hands. [28]
Following her hospitalization, Iyer appeared as a private candidate in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination in Chennai. [25] Writing the exam with the help of a scribe, [25] she secured a state rank among the private candidates. [23] This gained public attention. [11] Iyer was invited to the Rashtrapati Bhavan by the then President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. [23]
Iyer moved to New Delhi, where she studied Economics (Honors) at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, followed by a Master's in Social Work at the Delhi School of Social Work. [28] She did her M.Phil in Social Work [16] at the Madras School of Social Work, where she secured first class with distinction and won the ‘Rolling Cup’ for the Best M.Phil. Thesis in 2012. [29]
Iyer was invited to speak at the TEDxYouth@Chennai in 2013. [30] [31] She has described this experience as the start of her career as a motivational speaker. [4] [23] Iyer followed this up with speeches at United Nations in New York City, [3] [11] IIM Kozhikode, [32] [33] Norway, [34] Indonesia [35] South Africa [36] and Singapore [37] where she highlighted the importance of inclusion. Through her motivational talks and sensitization workshops in schools, colleges, private establishments, Non-governmental Organizations and youth forums, Iyer has tried to raise awareness about the need for universal design, accessible public spaces [21] [4] [38] and participation of disabled youth in promoting inclusive elections. [35] She has also worked towards creating awareness on a positive body image. [15] [39] She hosted the India Inclusion Summit in 2013. [40] An advocate for accessible fashion, Iyer walked the ramp as a showstopper for NIFT and Ability Foundation in Chennai where she emphasized the need for designing clothes with functionality and style for people with disability. [41] [42] In 2014, she was selected as a Global Shaper to the Chennai Hub of the Global Shapers Community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum. [4] [38] [43] She joined the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development's Working Group on Youth and Gender Equality and in March 2017 she was invited to deliver a speech at the United Nations in New York. [3] [11] [44] [45] In October 2017, she was invited to Co-Chair the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit held at Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi. [7] [22] [46] [47]
Iyer received the Nari Shakti Puraskar, the Highest Civilian Honor for Women for outstanding contribution to women's empowerment from the Honorable President of India Ram Nath Kovind on 8 March 2018 on the occasion of International Women's Day. [48] [49] On 8 March 2020, she was selected by the Honorable Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi to take over his social media accounts. [50] [51] [52] She is the recipient of the first Women in the World Emerging Leaders Award in New York in 2016. [16] [21] [53] She was recognized as one of the 100 Change Agents and Newsmakers of the Decade by Deccan Chronicle in 2015. [11]
Lakshmi Sahgal was a revolutionary of the Indian independence movement, an officer of the Indian National Army, and the Minister of Women's Affairs in the Azad Hind government. Lakshmi is commonly referred to in India as Captain Lakshmi, a reference to her rank when taken prisoner in Burma during the Second World War.
Presidency College is an art, commerce, and science college in the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, India. On 16 October 1840, this school was established as the Madras Preparatory School before being repurposed as a high school, and then a graduate college. The Presidency College is one of the oldest government arts colleges in India. It is one of two Presidency Colleges established by the British in India, the other being the Presidency College, Kolkata.
Trisha Krishnan is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Tamil and Telugu films. She gained prominence after winning the 1999 Miss Chennai pageant, which marked her entry into Cinema. Trisha is the recipient of several accolades. Trisha is often referred as the "Queen of South India" or "The South Queen" for her contributions to South Indian Cinema. She has been ranked among the top actresses in South Indian Cinema by The Times of India.
Nandita Das is an Indian actress and director. She has acted in over 40 feature films in ten different languages. Das appeared in the films Fire (1996), Earth (1998), Bawandar (2000), Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), Azhagi (2002),Kamli (2006), and Before The Rains (2007). Her directorial debut Firaaq (2008), premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and travelled to more than 50 festivals, winning more than 20 awards. Her second film as a director was Manto (2018). Based on the life of 20th Century Indo-Pakistani short story writer Sadat Hasan Manto, the film was screened at Cannes Film Festival in the "Un Certain Regard" section. In September 2019, Das produced a two-minute Public Service Announcement music video India's Got Colour. The music video is about the issue of colourism and urges the audience to celebrate India's diversity of skin colour. Her first book, 'Manto & I', chronicles her 6-year long journey of making the film. She wrote, directed, produced and acted in a short film called, Listen to Her, that sheds light on the increase in domestic violence and overburden of work that women have been facing during the lockdown. She had also sought petition seeking the commutation of the death sentence handed out to Ajmal Kasab.
Janani is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Tamil and Malayalam movies. She made her cinematic debut with the Tamil feature film Avan Ivan (2011). Her notable films including Thegidi (2014) and 7th Day (2014). She is the 3rd runner up of the reality show Bigg Boss Tamil 2 which aired in 2018.
Parvati Venugopal Nair is an Indian model and actress who works in the South Indian film industry. Born into a Malayali family in Abu Dhabi, she trained as a software professional from Manipal Institute of Technology. She started modelling at the age of 15.
Lakshmi Menon is an Indian actress who mainly appears in Tamil films. After making her acting debut in a supporting role in the Malayalam film Raghuvinte Swantham Raziya (2011), she played the female lead in her Tamil debut film Sundara Pandian in 2012.
Aishwarya Rajesh is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Tamil films along with Malayalam and Telugu films. Aishwarya is a recipient of four South Indian International Movie Awards, one Filmfare Award South and one Tamil Nadu State Film Award.
Saundarya Rajesh is an Entrepreneur who is the founder and president of Avtar Group. She is known for Second Career opportunities for women in corporate India. She runs Project Puthri to empower underprivileged girls with employment. She was awarded the ‘100 Women Achievers of India’ in 2016 by the Minister of Women and Child Development for her work. She received the Women Transforming India Award from the NITI Aayog and the United Nations in 2016. Her debut book, The 99 Day Diversity Challenge: Creating an Inclusive Workplace (2018), was published by SAGE Publishing.
Sudha Menon is an author, actor, motivational speaker and founder of writing workshop series, Get Writing and Writing With Women. She is the author of six non-fiction books: 'Recipes For Life', Feisty at Fifty, Legacy: Letters to their daughters from eminent Indian men and women, Gifted: inspirational stories of people with disabilities, and Devi, Diva or She-Devil: The Smart Career woman's survival guide and Leading Ladies: Women Who Inspire India. Her books have been translated into several Indian languages including Marathi, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Tamil.
Malvika Nair is an Indian actress who appears in Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil-language films. Her notable works include Black Butterfly (2013), Cuckoo (2014), Yevade Subramanyam (2015) and Taxiwaala (2018).
Tiffany Brar is an Indian community service worker who became blind as an infant due to oxygen toxicity. Brar is the founder of the Jyothirgamaya Foundation, a non-profit organization that teaches life skills to blind people of all ages. She is a trainer, a campaigner for disability awareness and an advocates for an inclusive society.
Meera Shenoy is founder of Youth4Jobs. She works on policy, both with central and state governments, and has implemented projects in scale. Her recent assignment was Senior Advisor UNDP, Skilling & Employment and supporting Mr. Subramaniam Ramadorai, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Skilling, in his capacity as chairman, NSDA.
Vidya Iyer, better known by her stage name Vidya Vox, is an American YouTuber and singer. She was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and immigrated with her family to the United States of America at the age of eight. According to NBC News, her music is a mix of "Western pop, electronic dance music, Bollywood hits, and Indian classical music." Since beginning her channel in April 2015, her videos have received over 906 million views, and her channel has accumulated over 7 million subscribers.
Kirthi Jayakumar is a peace educator, a women, peace, and security and feminist foreign policy practitioner, lawyer and writer. She is a Commonwealth Scholar, a Vital Voices (VV) Lead Fellow, a VV Engage Fellow, a Local Pathways Fellow, and a World Pulse Impact Leader. Kirthi is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She served as an advisor to the G7 through the Women7 under the German Presidency of the G7 in 2022, the Japanese Presidency of the G7 in 2023, and currently under the Italian Presidency of the G7, and was named as one of UN Women Asia Pacific's 30 for 2030.
Gopi Shankar Madurai is an Indian equal rights and Indigenous rights activist. Shankar was one of the youngest, and the first openly intersex and genderqueer statutory authority and one of the candidates to contest in 2016 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election. Shankar is also the founder of Srishti Madurai Student Volunteer Collective. Shankar's work inspired the Madras High Court to direct the Government of Tamil Nadu to order a ban on forced sex-selective surgeries on intersex infants. In December 2017, Shankar was elected to the executive board of ILGA Asia. In August 2020, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment appointed Shankar as the South Regional representative in the National Council for Transgender Persons.
Virali Modi is a disability rights activist and motivational speaker from India. She spent much of her youth in the United States, but after a visit to India she entered a coma due to contracting malaria. She survived, but could no longer walk. She came second in the Miss Wheelchair India contest in 2014 and as a result gathered a large following on social media. She began a Change.org petition titled "Implement Disabled Friendly Measures in Indian Railways." Her efforts to make railways more accessible landed her in "100 Women (BBC)" for 2017. She has given multiple TEDx talks on her experiences and struggles due to her disability. She has started campaigns to promote accessibility for disabled individuals one titled #MyTrainToo which she began in 2017 as well as another titled #RampMyRestaurant.
Meera Mitun is an Indian model and actress, who has appeared in Tamil language movies. After beginning her career as a model, she became an actress, making her debut in the movie 8 Thottakkal (2017). Meera is known for her extensive controversies and allegations.
Arifa Jan is an Indian activist for felt rug making in Srinagar in Kashmir. Jan was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar on 8 March 2020.
Divya Sesha Iyer is an Indian bureaucrat, medical doctor, editor, and author who is part of the Indian Administrative Service in Kerala. She is the Managing Director of Vizhinjam International Seaport. She previously has held the posts of District Collector of Pathanamthitta and Mission Director of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA.