Malvika Iyer

Malvika Iyer (born 18 February 1989) is a social worker and disability rights activist having lost both her hands as a child when she picked up a grenade. She is also a model for accessible fashion. Iyer obtained her Doctorate in Social Work from Madras School of Social Work in 2017. Her doctoral thesis is on the stigmatization of people with disabilities.

Early life and injury
Iyer was born on 18 February 1989 in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu to B. Krishnan and Hema Krishnan. She grew up in Bikaner, Rajasthan, where her father worked as an engineer at the Water Works Department. On 26 May 2002, at the age of 13, Iyer lost both her hands when she accidentally picked up a grenade that exploded in her hands at her home in Bikaner and sustained severe injuries to her legs including multiple fractures, nerve paralysis and hypoesthesia.

Education
Following her hospitalization, Iyer appeared as a private candidate in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination in Chennai. Writing the exam with the help of a scribe, she secured a state rank among the private candidates. She was invited to the Rashtrapati Bhavan by the then President of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

Iyer moved to New Delhi, where she studied Economics (Honors) at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, followed by a Master's in Social Work at the Delhi School of Social Work. She did her M.Phil and Ph.D in Social Work at the Madras School of Social Work, where she secured first class with distinction and won the Rolling Cup for the Best M.Phil. Thesis in 2012.

Activism
She hosted the India Inclusion Summit in 2013. An advocate for accessible fashion, Iyer walked the ramp as a showstopper for NIFT and Ability Foundation in Chennai where she emphasized the need for designing clothes with functionality and style for people with disability. In 2014, she was selected as a Global Shaper to the Chennai Hub of the Global Shapers Community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum. She joined the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development's Working Group on Youth and Gender Equality and in March 2017 she was invited to deliver a speech at the United Nations in New York. In October 2017, she was invited to Co-Chair the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit held at Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi.

Recognition
Iyer received the Nari Shakti Puraskar, the highest civilian honor for women for contribution to women's empowerment, from President Ram Nath Kovind on 8 March 2018 on International Women's Day. On 8 March 2020, she was selected by the Honorable Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi to take over his social media accounts. She is the recipient of the first Women in the World Emerging Leaders Award in New York in 2016. She was recognized as one of the 100 Change Agents and Newsmakers of the Decade by Deccan Chronicle in 2015.