MANIPUR'S IRON LADY
EARLY LIFE: Born on March 14, 1972, she is the youngest of nine siblings, a loner. She was not a sharp student and gave up her dreams of becoming a doctor when she realised she did not have the “brains” for it. She could not clear her Class 12
INFLUENCES: Her father was a great influence in her life. “He was very strict in handling his children but always fair – I think I am like my father that way. But sometimes he would give me a lift to the school on his cycle, and he would tell me many stories on the way,’’ she told a national newspaper
EDUCATION: Did a short course in journalism for six months and learnt stenography for a year
ACTIVIST LIFE: In 2000, the Assam Rifles shot 10 civilians at a bus stop in Malom. This massacre triggered Sharmila to go on a hunger strike against AFSPA. In 2016, Sharmila was released from judicial custody but decided to keep her vow of not going to her house or meeting her mother until the government repealed AFSPA
AWARDS: Sharmila was awarded the 2007 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights; In 2009, she was awarded the first Mayillama Award of Mayilamma Foundation; In 2010, she won a lifetime achievement award from Asian Human Rights Commission. That year, she won Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management, and the Sarva Gunah Sampannah “Award for Peace and Harmony” from the Signature Training Centre