On Occasion Of 73rd Republic Day Of India, Meet 15 Women Constitution Makers

India enters into 73rd year of being a Republic on January 26, 2022. The day is remembered as the Constitution of India came into effect on this day in 1950.

Among the 299 people of the Constituent Assembly, there were 15 women representatives. Even after being in a small number, they left an immeasurable impact on the formulation and drafting of the Indian constitution. The speeches and amendments proposed by them show how they worked neck to neck for furthering the cause of the nation along with the male lawmakers.

Here is the list of 15 powerful women who shaped the Indian Constitution and became role models for many women in years to come.

15 Women Constitution Makers Of India:

Dakshayani Velayudhan

Dakshayani Velayudhan was born in Mulavuukad, an island in Ernakulam. Being the first and only Dalit woman to be elected to the Constituent Assembly, she helped raise many questions and brought into light many laws related to caste discrimination in the Constituent Assembly debates. Velayudhan was from the Pulaya community of Cochin and was the first generation of women to have been educated and the first girl to attend school. She was considered to be a leader among the oppressed classes.

In the pre-independence era, she worked as an Editor to the Gandhi Era Publication and had many firsts to her credits. Velayudhan was the first woman from the Dalit community to have graduated in India. She was also the first Dalit woman member of the Kochi Legislative Assembly in 1945.

Hansa Jivraj Mehta

Mehta was a member of the sub-committee drafting Fundamental Rights and the Provincial Constitutional Committee. She presented to the assembly a tricolor flag to unfurl at midnight on August 15, 1947, as the representative of "women of India". She amended the phrase by Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and changed it from "all men are born free and equal" to "all human beings are born free and equal"

She was influenced by the works of Gandhiji and on her return to India after graduating from Sociology and Journalism in England, she started working as a reformer and activist in the country. She also won the Provincial election from Bombay and won for two terms- 1937-39 and 1940-49. The 18th session of the All India Women's Conference (AIWC) drafted the women's charter. Mehta was also the first woman vice-chancellor of India.

Begum Aizaz Rasul

Rasul was elected from United Provinces in the Constituent Assembly of India and was the only Muslim woman among the fifteen women elected to the Assembly. She belonged to a family of influential taluqdar in Awadh, but she successfully contested from the non-reserved seat and was elected to the legislative assembly from the province and then gave up purdah.

She was elected to the Rajya Sabha in independent India in 1952 and later on became the Minister for Social Welfare and Minorities. Rasul wrote her autobiography - From Purdah to Parliament where she wrote about her journey of leaving an orthodox society behind to reach the Parliament. She was awarded Padma Bhushan for her social work in the year 2000. In the Parliament, she opposed reservation for minorities in legislative assemblies during the time of partition. 

Ammu Swaminathan- 

The social worker and political activist was elected from the Madras constituency to the Constituent Assembly. She stood against the archaic and oppressive caste system which she felt was detrimental to the progress of Indian society. She was born in the Vadakkath family of Kerala and her parents belonged to the Nair caste. She was married to Subbarama Swaminathan who nurtured her talent even after she was married so young. 

Swaminathan became a follower of Gandhiji and took part in many pre-independence struggles including the Quit India Movement for which she was arrested and jailed. She also served as President of the Bharat Scouts and Guides and was later selected as the 'Mother of The Year' in 1975 on the inauguration of International Women's Year. In 1917, she founded the Women’s India Association at Madras, along with President of Theosophical Society of India Annie Besant, Margaret Cousins, Malathi Patwardhan, Dadabhoy, and Ambujammal. The forum looked at the economic issues and problems faced by women workers. 

 Kamla Chaudhary-

Kamla Chaudhary was an Indian writer and member of the Constituent Assembly. Her subject of writing varied extensively and she wrote about gender discrimination, peasant exploitation, and widows in India. Her famous works are- Unmaad, Picnic, Yatra, and Bel Patra. Even though she belongs to a rich family in Lucknow, she had a lot of struggles in obtaining an education. 

She was jailed by Britishers several times due to her active involvement in the pre-independence struggle. Chaudhary also served as Vice President for the Indian National Congress for its annual session in Meerut in 1946. She became a member of the third Lok Sabha after winning the general elections held in the country in 1962. She was elected from the Hapur constituency as an official candidate of Congress. 

Durgabai Deshmukh-

The Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, and the social worker was more popularly known as Lady Deshmukh. She worked for progressing the cause of women in society and hence formed Andhra Mahila Sabha in 1937. She was a great follower of Gandhiji and worked as a true satyagrahi. She organised women satyagrahis in the movement throughout the region and participated in Civil Disobedience Movement. Being a president of the Blind Relief Association, she set up workshops and hostels for blind students.

Deshmukh served as a member of the Planning Commission of India and became founder chairperson of the Central Social Welfare Board. Deshmukh was the first chairperson of the National Council on Women's Education and she suggested many points to the Government of India. This included- the creation of the department of women's education in central ministry, Co-education at a higher level of education, training facilities for girls on a liberal basis among many others.

Purnima Banerjee-

The woman championed the cause of rural engagement and was elected for the Constituent Assembly from Allahabad. However, it is a very less known fact that she was also the sister to reformer, social activist, and politician Aruna Asaf Ali. She served as the secretary of the Indian National Congress committee in Allahabad and at that position, she engaged and organised the trade unions, kisan meetings in the province. 

She was an active follower of Gandhiji and took part in Salt March as well as Quit India Movement. While in prison she pursued her bachelor's in arts which inspired many women to take up education. Banerjee was a member of the Congress Socialist Party since its start in 1934. She was the first woman to lead the chorus of the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, after it was officially adopted. 

Leela Roy-

She is the Indian politician and reformer who championed the cause of education for girls and martial training for them to learn self defence. Her father Girischandra Nag was a tutor to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and so she was also a close associate to him. She graduated with a gold medal in English from Bethune College in Calcutta. In those days, co-education was not permitted in Dhaka University, but she became the first woman to pursue her masters from it.

Over her active years, she set up a number of schools and training centers for women. She began publishing the magazine edited, managed, and wholly contributed by women writers named "Jayshree". During Quit India Movement, she was arrested along with her husband in 1942 and her magazine was forced to cease. During the partition violence that hit Bengal, she set up a relief center and rescued many women hit by it. A women's organisation named Jatiya Mahila Sanghati was founded by her in Bengal in 1947. 

Malati Choudhary-

An ardent believer in Gandhian philosophy and social rights activist, Choudhary originally belonged to the brahmin family. She was deeply influenced by Rabindranath Tagore who taught her principles of education and development, art, and culture which later shaped her life. She was arrested several times for participating in the independence struggle, but her sheer determination and courage never made her give up. 

In 1946, she established Bajiraut Chhatravas at Angul in Orissa which provided residential facilities and educational opportunities to the children of the freedom fighters. Later on, the organisation took up the cause for SCs, STs, OBCs, and other depressed classes as well. She also mobilised farmers and lead the Krusaka Andolan against the landlords and moneylenders, who exploited the poor farmers. She always talked about the cause of adult education as a part of rural reconstruction and development. 

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Renuka Ray-

Ray belonged to Bengal province and was a renowned freedom fighter and social reformer of pre-independent India. She was greatly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi as she met him at a very early age. She even boycotted her college for the Gandhiji's Non-Cooperation Movement. In 1921, she was persuaded by Gandhiji at the request of her parents and she joined the London School of Economics.

When she returned back to India from London, she joined the All India Women’s Conference(organisation founded by Margaret Cousins in 1927) and worked for furthering the cause of women's development. Ray was also nominated to Central Legislative Assembly as a representative of women of India in 1943. After independence, she was elected from the Malda constituency of West Bengal from 1957 to 1967. She headed a committee on Social Welfare and Welfare of Backward Classes(1959), which in later years have come to be known as the Renuka Ray Committee.

Rajkumari Amrit Kaur-

Amrit Kaur was born in United Province and was raised as a Protestant Christian owing to her mother Priscilla. She had her early education at Sherborne School For Girls in England and had her college education at Oxford University. In 1918, she returned to India and became invested in the Indian freedom struggle. She worked as Gandhiji's secretary for 16 years and start focusing on the social reforms including demands for universal suffrage.

She stood against evils that affected Indian society like- the practice of purdah, child marriage, and the devadasi system. In 1927, she co-founded the All India Women's Conference along with Margaret Cousins. Kaur was arrested and jailed for supporting Dandi March by Mahatma Gandhi. She was sent as a member of the delegation representing India to UNESCO conferences in London and Paris in 1945 and 1946. She was appointed as the first Health Minister of India post-independence in 1947.

Sucheta Kriplani-

Kriplani is known for her central role in the Quit India Movement of 1942, where she established Women Wing of Indian National Congress. She was born in Punjab in the Bengali Brahmo family and has been an alumnus to St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. In her autobiography named , An Unfinished Autobiography, she spoke of how incidents in her life like Jallianwala Bagh Massacre shaped her as strong spirited woman.

She along with her sister confronted one of the teacher who spoke ill of Hinduism and quoted to him Bhagwat Geeta, which made her more courageous, as she recounted in her book. She was the first woman Chief Minister of state of Uttar Pradesh from the Kanpur constituency and also served as the part of the subcommittee that drafted the Constitution of India.

Sarojini Naidu-

She was famously known as the 'Nightingale of India', or 'Bharat Kokila' for her poetic works by Mahatma Gandhi. She was educated in Madras, London, and later Cambridge. She was deeply interested in India's freedom struggle and joined the Indian National Congress. In 1925, she was appointed as the President of the Indian National Congress and later on became the Governor of the United Provinces in 1947. Her inter-caste marriage with Govindarajulu Naidu, a physician was called "groundbreaking and scandalous".

She was a prolific orator and she spoke on women's education, emancipation on many platforms. In 1911, she was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal for her social work for flood relief. In 1917, she founded the Women's Indian Association along with Muthulakshmi Reddy to advocate universal suffrage. Her 135th birth anniversary was celebrated by Google through a Google Doodle.

Vijaylakshmi Pandit-

Pandit is considered one of the world’s leading women in public life in the 20th century. She was sister to former Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru and was born in Allahabad of United Province. She did not get any formal school education but was tutored at her home. She was arrested by the Britishers for her active participation in the national movements. 

She worked as a diplomat and was the delegation of India to the United Nations between 1946–48 and1952–53 after India attained Independence. Pandit also became the first woman president of the United Nations General Assembly. She is also remembered for voicing opinions against her niece Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India for her emergency-related measures. In 1979, she also published a book named The Scope of Happiness: A Personal Memoir.

Annie Mascarene-

Hailing from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, she was the first woman Parliamentarian from the state and worked as a social reformer, activist, and politician. In her tenure as a member of Lok Sabha, she raised the issue of the under-representation of women in politics. She was born in a Latin Catholic family studied at Maharaja's College Travancore and earned a double master's in history and economics in 1925. Later on, she also earned a law degree.

Annie Mascarene worked for the integration of the Princely States within the Indian nation. She became an orator and crafted herself in the policymaking for the state legislative assembly for Travancore. She joined the Quit India Movement in 1942 and later got elected to the position of secretary of the Travancore State Congress. She represented the Princely State of Travancore and Cochin Union in the Constituent Assembly.