Daughters’ Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of September in India. While some of them will celebrate the day on September 25, some will celebrate the day on the fourth Sunday of the month i.e., September 27. The day aims to honor the daughters of the family and to create awareness about a girl child and their achievements. In different countries, the day is marked on different days.
The observation supports more opportunities for girls and increases awareness of gender inequality faced by girls worldwide based upon their gender. This inequality includes areas such as access to education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care, and protection from discrimination, violence against women, and unfree child marriage.
On the occasion of National Daughter’s Day 2020, here are the daughters of India, who made India proud:
Avani Chaturvedi
Avani Chaturvedi became the first Indian woman to fly the MiG 21 Bison, solo. In June 2016, Chaturvedi, along with Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh, made history by becoming India’s first female fighter pilots.
Shivangi Singh
Flight Lieutenant Shivangi Singh will become the first woman pilot to fly the multi-role fighter aircraft Rafale after finishing her conversion training. The officer, who is one of IAF’s 10 women fighter pilots, joined the air force in 2017. After joining IAF, she has been flying the MiG-21 Bison aircraft and was till recently serving at a fighter base in Rajasthan.
Tessy Thomas
Popularly known as the ‘Missile Woman of India’, Tessy Thomas became India’s first woman scientist to head a missile project in India. She was the former project director for Agni-IV which was successfully tested in 2011.
Indra Nooyi
Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi was at No. 4 on the Forbes magazine`s annual survey of the 100 most powerful women in the world in 2015. This Indian-American corporate honcho is the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. which is the second-largest food and beverage business in the world in terms of net revenue.
Seema Rao
Seema Rao is the country’s first woman commando trainer. Also qualified as a professional medical doctor, she possesses an MBA in crisis management. Along with her husband, Major Deepak Rao, she has trained over 15,000 soldiers in close quarter battle.
Mary Kom
When it comes to Women’s World Boxing, there is perhaps no name bigger than MC Mary Kom. She is the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Asian Games (in 2014) and the Commonwealth Games (2018). Kom has since won a medal at all eight AIBA World Boxing Championships since its inception in 2001 (six golds, a silver and a bronze, most recently in 2019), risen to no.1 in the AIBA world rankings for a flyweight, and competed at the London 2012 Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal after being beaten by eventual champion Nicola Adams. Kom is determined to make it to Tokyo 2020 and win a gold medal.
Kalpana Chawla
Kalpana Chawla, she became the first Indian-born woman to reach space. But, unfortunately, she died on her second expedition in the space shuttle Columbia on February 1 in 2003 due to the blast of the shuttle.
Saalumarada Thimmakka
Saalumarada Thimmakka is an environmental crusader even past the age of 100. She is renowned for her act of planting over 8,000 banyan (Ficus) trees over her lifetime. According to media reports, she began planting trees because she and her husband were unable to bear children. Her acts got the attention of the international media, and the 105-year-old was named by the BBC in their list of the 100 most influential women in 2016.
