Personal Details

• 🎂 Date of Birth
• 26 August 1956
• 📍 Place of Birth
• New Delhi, India
• 👪Family
• Father: Lt. Col. Tarlochan Singh Anand
• Mother: Amardeep Kaur Anand
• Spouse: Sanjay Gandhi
• Children: Varun Gandhi
• Relatives: Indira Gandhi (Mother-in-law), Feroze Gandhi (Father-in-law), Datar Singh (Maternal grandfather), Rajiv Gandhi (Brother-in-law), Sonia Gandhi (Sister-in-law), Rahul Gandhi (Nephew), Priyanka Vadra (Niece)

Early Career

• 🌱 Early Life & Education
• Maneka Anand was born on 26 August 1956 in Delhi, India, into a Sikh family. Her father, Lt. Col. Tarlochan Singh Anand, served as an officer in the Indian Army.
• She attended The Lawrence School, Sanawar, and later studied at Lady Shri Ram College for Women. Subsequently, she studied German at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
• 💍 Marriage & Early Political Exposure
• Maneka first met Sanjay Gandhi in 1973 at a cocktail party hosted by her uncle, Major-General Kapur.
• She married Sanjay Gandhi, the son of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on 23 September 1974.
• During the Emergency (1975–77), she frequently accompanied her husband on political tours and assisted with his campaigns, gaining early exposure to Indian politics.

Career Journey

• A prominent Indian politician and animal rights advocate Maneka Gandhi has championed environmental protection and animal welfare through legislative action and grassroots activism.
• 📰 Early Career & Public Struggles
• Maneka Gandhi founded the news magazine Surya, which played a role in political discourse following the Congress party’s defeat in the 1977 election. She also faced significant personal challenges, including a legal battle over her passport, resulting in the landmark case Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, which strengthened personal liberty rights in India. In 1980, she was widowed at the age of 23, with her son Varun only 100 days old, after Sanjay Gandhi died in an air crash.
• 🚀 Political Career Journey
• On 3 April 1983, Maneka co-founded the Rashtriya Sanjay Manch with Akbar Ahmad, focusing on youth empowerment and employment. She contested the Amethi Lok Sabha seat in 1984 but lost to Rajiv Gandhi. In 1988, she joined V. P. Singh’s Janata Dal Party and became its General Secretary. She won her first parliamentary election in 1989 from Pilibhit, serving as Minister of State for Environment.
• Over the years, she held multiple ministerial positions: Environment & Forests (1989–1991), Programme Implementation (1990), Social Justice & Empowerment (1999–2001), Culture & Animal Care (2001), Women & Child Development (2014–2019)
• She was elected multiple times to the Lok Sabha from Pilibhit, Aonla, and Sultanpur, establishing herself as a prominent national leader.
• 🐾 Activism & Advocacy
• Maneka Gandhi is a leading environmentalist and animal rights advocate. In 1992, she founded People for Animals, now the largest animal rights organization in India. She served as chairwoman of the CPCSEA, overseeing inspections of laboratories using animals. She filed Public Interest Litigations to replace municipal killing of homeless dogs with sterilization programs, regulated the sale of airguns, and banned mobile zoos. A vegan herself, she promotes ethical and healthy lifestyles.
• 📺 Media & Public Awareness
• She hosted the weekly television program Heads & Tails, highlighting the suffering of animals due to commercial exploitation, and later authored a book with the same title. She also hosted Maneka’s Ark, an environmental talk show on DD National.
• 🌳 Environmental Initiatives
• Maneka Gandhi has actively promoted forest conservation and environmental protection. In September 2023, she wrote to the chief secretary of Rajasthan advocating for the protection of the Dol Ka Badh forest in Jaipur. She also serves on international boards, including Eurosolar and the Wuppertal Institute in Germany.
• 🗳️ Electoral History
• In 1984, Maneka Gandhi contested the Amethi Lok Sabha seat as an independent candidate but lost to Rajiv Gandhi of Congress by over 2.7 lakh votes. She was elected to the Lok Sabha from Pilibhit as a Janata Dal candidate during 1989–91, but in 1991, she lost to Parashuram of the Bharatiya Janata Party from the same constituency.
• She was re-elected from Pilibhit as a Janata Dal candidate in 1996–98, and then as an independent candidate in 1998–99. She continued her winning streak from Pilibhit as an independent in 1999–2004, and later as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in 2004–09.
• In 2009–14, she represented Aonla in the Lok Sabha as a BJP candidate, and in 2014–19, she was again elected from Pilibhit as a BJP member. She won the Sultanpur seat in 2019–24 as a BJP candidate, but in 2024, she lost the Sultanpur constituency to Ram Bhual Nishad of the Samajwadi Party.
• 🏛️ Positions Held
• She served as General-Secretary of the Janata Dal (J.D.) from 1988 to 1989. Between 1989 and 1991, she was the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests, and from January to April 1990, she also held the role of Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Programme Implementation.
• During 1996–97, she was a member of the Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests. She served as Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Social Justice and Empowerment during 1998–99 and again from 13 October 1999 to 1 September 2001.
• Between 1 September and 18 November 2001, she was Union Minister of State for Culture with additional charge of Animal Care, and from 18 November 2001 to 30 June 2002, she held the post of Union Minister of State for Programme Implementation and Statistics with an added charge of Animal Care.
• From 2002 to 2004, she was a member of the Committee on External Affairs, and in 2004, she served on the Committee on Health & Family Welfare as well as the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
• From 5 August 2007 onwards, she continued as a member of the Committee on Health & Family Welfare, became a member of the Committee on Railways on 31 August 2009, and was appointed Chairperson of the Committee on Government Assurances on 23 September 2009. She also served as a member of the General Purposes Committee from 19 October 2009, and on 26 May 2014, she assumed office as the Union Minister of Women & Child Development.
• 📚 Books
• In 1989, Maneka Gandhi authored 1000 Animal Quiz, published by Rupa and Co., Calcutta, comprising 201 pages. In 1991, she co-authored Brahma's Hair: The Mythology of Indian Plants with Yasmin Singh, also published by Rupa and Co., Calcutta, spanning 175 pages.
• In 1992, she published The Penguin Book of Hindu Names through Penguin Books, London and New Delhi, a 522-page work, with its latest edition released in 2008. In 1994, she co-authored Dogs, Dogs, Dogs with Ozair Husain, published by Rupa & Co., New Delhi, which was later updated in 2004. The same year, she released The Complete Book of Muslim and Parsi Names, co-authored with Ozair Husain, through Indus, New Delhi, consisting of 522 pages.
• Also in 1994, she authored Heads and Tails, published by Other India Press, Mapusa, Goa, a 182-page work on animal rights. In 1999, she published The Rainbow and Other Stories, a 67-page collection of children’s short stories through Puffin Books, New Delhi.
• In 2004, she published The Penguin Book of Hindu Names for Boys (429 pages, New Delhi) and The Penguin Book of Hindu Names for Girls (151 pages, New York), both through Penguin Books. The same year, she also released The Rupa Book of Animal Quiz (201 pages, Rupa & Co.).
• In 2016, she co-authored Animal Laws of India with Ozair Husain and Raj Panjwani, published by Universal Law Publishing, New Delhi, spanning 1,649 pages. In 2017, she co-authored Sanjay Gandhi with Himani Bhatia Narula, published by Prestige Publishers, New Delhi, with 244 pages.
• In 2019, she published There’s a Monster Under My Bed!: And Other Terrible Terrors, a 54-page children’s short story book with illustrations by Snigdha Rao, through Puffin Books, Gurgaon.

Achievements and Milestones

• Lord Erskine Award – 1992
• Environmentalist and Vegetarian of the Year – 1994
• Prani Mitra Award – 1996
• Maharana Mewar Foundation Award – 1996
• Marchig Animal Welfare and Selling Prize, Switzerland – 1997
• Venu Menon Animal Allies Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award – 1999
• Bhagwan Mahaveer Foundation Award – 1999
• Dewaliben Charitable Trust Award – 1999
• Dinanath Mangeshkar Aadishakti Puraskar – 2001
• International Women’s Association Woman of the Year Award – 2001
• A.S.G. Jayakar Award – 2008
• Neuro Inclusive Politician (NIP) Award – 2025
• Shining World Compassion Award
• Rukmini Devi Arundale Animal Welfare Award
• Human Achiever Award (Women Empowerment & Children Welfare)