 Meenakshi Pahuja receiving a 2018 Nari Shakti Puraskar award | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1978 (age 45–46) Delhi, India |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Swimming |
Meenakshi Pahuja (born 1978) is an Indian lecturer and marathon swimmer. After a successful career as a competitive swimmer, she became a teacher at Lady Shri Ram College, and later entered open water swimming. She received a 2018 Nari Shakti Puraskar award.
Meenakshi Pahuja was born in 1978 [1] and grew up in Delhi, the oldest of three children. Her father V. K. Pahuja taught swimming at the Modern School. [2] She first entered swimming competitions at the age of five and became a junior age group national champion in the 50 metres breaststroke before she turned nine. [2]
Representing India, Pahuja won a medal in the 400 metres Individual Medley at the 1996 Asia Pacific Age Group swimming championships in Pusan, South Korea. [2] She was a three-time champion at the national games. [3] In 2001, she retired from swimming [2] and became a lecturer in Physical Training at the Lady Shri Ram College, part of the University of Delhi. [1]
In August 2006, Pahuja started marathon swimming. She participated in a 19-km event over the Bhagirathi-Hooghly river in Murshidabad, West Bengal. [2] She then travelled to Switzerland to compete in the 2007 Lake Zürich Swim (26.4 km from Rapperswil to Zürich proper), where she was the fifth-place female finisher. [2] [4] She was financially supported by her father and the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University, Deepak Pental. [2]
Pahuja has tried twice to swim the English Channel. Her first attempt was in 2008. One week before arriving in Dover, she competed in an 81-km championship over the Bhagirathi-Hooghly River; although she dealt with "muddy water and river snakes", she finished in 12 hours and 27 minutes. [2] However, as she was not experienced with ocean swimming, she struggled with the current in the channel and withdrew after 11 km due to seasickness. [4] Pahuja made her second attempt in 2014, again starting from the English side. After she had swum 40 km in 14 hours and 19 minutes, she was forced to return due to changing tides. She was 3 km away from completion. [5] [6]
Pahuja was the first Indian to swim around Key West in Florida and to complete the Lake Travis Solo in Texas. [4] She also was the first Indian to complete the Tex Robertson Highland Lakes Challenge, where she swam five lakes in five days: Lake Buchanan, Inks Lake, Lake LBJ, Lake Marble Falls, and Lake Travis. [3] She is the second-fastest female finisher among the Indian participants in the Robben Island-Bloubergstrand course (7.4 km). [7] She won a bronze medal in the 2012 Labuan Sea Cross race in Malaysia [4] and finished third in the 2014 Manhattan Island Marathon Swim in New York City. [8] She is entered in the Limca Book of Records as the first Indian swimmer to cross Lake Constance in the Alps. [1]
In an interview, Pahuja has listed four major challenges that open-water swimmers should be prepared to face: weather conditions, sea life, endurance, and mental tenacity. [3] She encountered a corpse in one of her river races at Murshidabad, which she mistook for a competitor until it collided with a scout boat. [9]
Pahuja has spoken of the need to increase public and government support for Indian athletes, [10] especially female athletes. [11] She was a co-producer of the short film "Break The Taboo. Period". [12] She has also promoted improved school facilities for disabled children. [13]
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, many Indian swimmers faced restricted access to practice facilities. Pahuja increased her advocacy of the Indian swim community, writing news articles about athletes planning to participate in the upcoming Summer Olympics and arguing for increased access to facilities (maintaining distancing and sanitary guidelines). [14] [15]
Pahuja received a 2018 Nari Shakti Puraskar award (India's highest civilian award for women) from President Ram Nath Kovind. [12]
The Hooghly River or popularly called Ganga or Kati-Ganga in the Puranas, is a river that rises close to Giria, which lies north of Baharampur and Palashi in Murshidabad. It is the western distributary of the Ganges. The main course of the Ganges then flows into Bangladesh as the Padma. A man-made canal, built in the 1960s and early-1970s at Farakka, connects the Ganges, flowing through Malda, to the Hooghly to bring the abundant waters of the Himalayan river to the comparatively narrow river that rises in eastern West Bengal.
Jalangi River, is a branch of the Ganges river in Murshidabad and Nadia districts in the Indian state of West Bengal. It flows into the Bhagirathi river and strengthens its lower channel, the Hooghly.
The Barharwa–Azimganj–Katwa loop is a railway line connecting Barharwa on the Sahibganj loop and Katwa. Together with the Bandel–Katwa line, which connects this line to Bandel Junction on the Howrah–Bardhaman main line, it is also known as the B.B Loop Line. This 170 kilometres (110 mi) line is under the jurisdiction of Eastern Railway. The majority of this line passes through the Purba Bardhaman and Murshidabad districts, in the Indian state of West Bengal, and lies on the west bank of the Bhagirathi river.
Ana Marcela Jesus Soares da Cunha is a Brazilian swimmer who specializes in the open water swimming marathon. She is considered one of the best open water swimmers in history, having obtained 17 medals in FINA World Aquatics Championships. She has also received FINA’s Female World Open Water Swimmer Of The Year award six times. Her countless achievements are comparable only to those of Larisa Ilchenko, another multi-medalist in World Championships.
Linda Carol McGill, also known by her married name Linda Kruk, is an Australian former competition swimmer noted both for achievements at the Commonwealth Games and in long-distance swimming. At age 30, McGill set a record for the fastest and only swim around Hong Kong Island which stood for over 40 years, and still holds the record for the fastest swim in a counterclockwise direction.
The Nari Shakti Puraskar is an annual award given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Government of India to individual women or to institutions that work towards the cause of women empowerment. It is the highest civilian honour for women in India, and is presented by the president of India on International Women's Day at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. The award was instituted in 1999 under the title of Stree Shakti Puraskar, renamed and reorganised in 2015. It is awarded in six institutional and two individual categories, which carry a cash prize of 200,000 and 100,000 rupees, respectively.
Bhakti Sharma is an Indian Open water swimmer.
Sarah Thomas is an American marathon swimmer. She is the first person to complete four consecutive crossings of the English Channel and the first person to swim a current-neutral swim over 100 miles. She holds the world record for longest, second-, and third-longest current-neutral swims, and various other records in both fresh and salt water categories.
Latika Thukral is an Indian banker who transformed her city, in particular Aravali Biodiversity Park in Gurgaon. where a million native trees were planted by the group #IAmGurgaon. She was awarded the Nari Shakti Award in 2015 by the President of India.
Rashmi Anand is an Indian activist and writer concerned about domestic violence. The President of India awarded her the Nari Shakti Puraskar. This is the highest award for women in India. She founded the "Woman of the Elements Trust" which supplies support to victims of domestic abuse in Delhi.
Rhea Mazumdar Singhal is an Indian entrepreneur creating biodegradable disposable products. Her awards include the Nari Shakti Puraskar.
Karthyayani Amma was an Indian woman who passed a literacy examination with top marks at the age of 96. She received the Nari Shakti Puraskar award, the highest civilian award for a woman, by the government of India.
Urmila Balavant Apte is the Indian Founder of the BhartiyaStree Shakti organisation in 1988 which is dedicated to the empowerment of women. She received the Nari Shakti Puraskar from President Ram Nath Kovind in 2018 for her work.
A. Seema is an Indian scientist from Kerala who led a team that developed a bra that indicates whether the person wearing it has breast cancer. After it was sent for commercial development, she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2019 for her work.
Sheela Balaji leads the Indian educational nonprofit organization (NGO) AIM For Seva. She is the recipient of the Nari Shakti Puraskar award. She is the grand-daughter of T. V. Sundram Iyengar.
Kshetrimayum Indira Devi, known as Chirom Indira, is an Indian entrepreneur, designer, and social worker.
Madhu Jain is an Indian textile designer who is an advocate for bamboo fabric which she sees as the "textile of the future". In 2018 she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar after 30 years in fashion.
Rekha Mishra is an Indian police officer from Railway Protection Force(RPF) who was recognised for finding hundreds of lost children. She was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2018.
Dr. M.S. Sunil is an Indian Academician, Humanist and Philanthropist known for housing the homeless. She founded Dr. M.S. Sunil Foundation in December, 2016 in Pathanamthitta, with five trust members and six volunteers. Her works focuses to uplift the living conditions of impoverished families/ communities, her philanthropist and non- profit programmes aim to provide safe houses and healthy food to build a compassionate environment with enlightened mind on renewable energy and conservation of natural habitat by including every communities including Tribal and socially underprivileged with less or no inequality. She was acknowledged by the Government of India and was the recipient of many honours, including the Nari Shakti Puraskar- 2017 which is considered as the Government of India's highest civilian honour for women.
Sandhya Dhar is an Indian disability rights activist. She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at an early age and is a wheelchair user. She founded the Jammu Institute of General Education and Rehabilitation (JIGER) in 2015 to support disabled people and was awarded the 2020 Nari Shakti Puraskar.