Three Indian women have been included in this year’s BBC 100 Women list of inspiring and influential women.
For the first time, to recognise the disproportionate impact of climate change on the lives of women and girls, this year’s BBC 100 Women list specifically highlights a group of women leading the battle against the climate crisis.
By naming 28 Climate Pioneers from all corners of the globe, the BBC 100 Women list 2023 celebrates those inspiring and leading their communities to tackle and adapt to the devastating impact of climate change in their regions.
The announcement of this year’s list kicks off the BBC’s 100 Women 2023 season – focusing on women’s right and diverse life experiences around the globe, with special content including interviews, documentaries, features, digital and social journalism, across the BBC’s UK and global TV and radio services, BBC iPlayer and BBC.com.
The Indian women included in this year’s list are:
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Dia Mirza, award winning actress from Indian cinema, who is involved in numerous environmental and humanitarian projects.
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Harmanpreet Kaur, captain of the India women’s national cricket and the first Indian woman to be named as one of Wisden’s five Cricketers of the Year.
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Arati Kumar-Rao, an independent photographer, writer, and National Geographic Explorer, who documents the changing landscape across South Asia, caused by climate change. One of BBC 100 Women’s 28 Climate Pioneers.
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, who was born in England in the 1940s, but became one the first Westerners to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monastic after travelling to India at the age of 20, is also included on the list.
Other notable names from the BBC 100 Women 2023 list include former First Lady of the United States, attorney and campaigner Michelle Obama, footballer Aitana Bonmati, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, actresses America Ferrera, beauty mogul Huda Kattan, AI expert Timnit Gebru, campaigner Ulanda Mtamba, writer Oksana Zabuzhko and feminist leader Gloria Steinem.
Yet it is the new names that make the BBC 100 women list so unique. Among them are the 28 Climate Pioneers, announced to coincide with the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, starting later this month in Dubai.
They include Paraguayan sprinter Camila Pirelli, South African freediving instructor Zandile Ndhlovu, Pakistani midwife Neha Mankani, Nigerian mental health advocate Jennifer Uchendu and Thai campaigner for indigenous and LGBTQ+ rights Matcha Phorn-in.
Other women celebrated for their work tackling the climate crisis in different fields, include Brazil's state minister Sonia Guajajara, firefighter Sofia Kosacheva, and climate advisers Iryna Stavchuk and Christiana Figueres.
The season will look at the practice of child marriage, as 12 million underaged girls are forced into marriage every year. It will explore the spike in climate anxiety concerns with a data-led project, and hear from women whose reproductive choices have been impacted by environmental concerns. It’ll go on the road with Mexican truck drivers in a heavily male-dominated and dangerous business, and also travel up the mountains with a group of shepherdesses who brought wealth and transformed their community in less than a generation.
