Maneka Gandhi

Maneka Sanjay Gandhi  (born 26 August 1956, Delhi, India) is the Indian Union Cabinet Minister for Women & Child Development in the Government of PM Narendra Modi. She is also an animal rights activist, environmentalist. She has been a minister in four governments, and has authored a number of books in the areas of etymology, law and animal welfare. Maneka Gandhi is a member of the Nehru-Gandhi Family. Maneka was born in Delhi into a Sikh family.

Her father was Indian Army officer Lt. Col. Tarlochan Singh Anand and her mother was Amteshwar Anand. She subsequently studied German at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She first met Sanjay Gandhi at a cocktail party in 1973 then marry him.  Maneka eventually married Sanjay, the son of the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi one year later on 23 September 1974.