These women made their way into the parliament despite all odds

RAMYA HARIDAS | 32 | CONGRESS

Music graduate Ramya Haridas, whose folk songs were a hit during the campaign, had defeated incumbent and two-time CPM leader P K Biju with a comfortable margin of 1.58 lakh votes.

In the state of Kerala, which had a poor record of electing women parliamentarians, Haridas happened to be the sole woman candidate who was on the winning side.

She had asked voters to send their grievances via SMS to a particular number and received over two lakh messages within days. "People from the backward communities have several issues that they need a solution for," she says.

CHANDRANI MURMU | 25 |

Chandrani Murmu attending the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha, will be making her the youngest parliamentarian to be sworn in.

"Initially I was very apprehensive. Would people accept me? I was a nobody. People saw some quality in me and that helped me move forward," Murmu said.

The young tribal MP has planned to focus on education in her constituency where early marriage and gender inequality abound. "I was fortunate enough to study because my parents thought it was important. But others don't think like that. If I can bring focus to education, we can tackle other problems in the constituency," she says.

PRAMILA BISOYI | 70 |

Schooled till class III, married before she outgrew dolls, Pramila Bisoyi in Cheramaria village as a lowly paid anganwadi sahayika (ICDS helper).

However, women empowerment will be her priority, she says. She has popular support of rural women in the Aska area, where instead of high-decibel speeches she chose to sing folk songs praising Naveen's leadership and schemes.

In the end, she trounced BJP's Anita Subhadarshini by over 2 lakh votes. A significant concern is unemployment, "I will try to establish more small industries in our district to help the youth get jobs," she says.

NUSRAT JAHAN | 29 |

MP Nusrat Jahan has taken up the responsibility of being a voice for the minority. Elected from Basirhat, a town which is located on the border of Bangladesh in West Bengal's North Parganas district.

Both Jahan and her Tollywood colleague Mimi Chakraborty were targets of incessant trolling, as West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee selected their names, when both of them posed in front of Parliament wearing western attire. "My outfit doesn't define who I am. I have emerged victorious, despite all the sexist and spiteful comments. I hope to be an inspiration to many other women in the world," she said confidently.

SUNITA DUGGAL | 51 |

"If you carry yourself with dignity, kissi mai ke lal ki himmat nahi hai ki kuch bol de. (No one will have the courage to say anything sexist or untoward.) Such things only betray the low mentality of the person," said Sunita Duggal. The only woman parliamentarian from Haryana.

Duggal, had visited the Parliament central hall last week to attend "PM's class" ("We all felt like students" she says). He is already busy with plans towards the high incidence of substance abuse amongst young people. "I have watched young women become widows and mothers lose their sons to drug abuse. I would like to spread awareness on this issue and set up rehabilitation centres for them," she said.