Angellica Aribam

Angellica Aribam (born 22 January 1992) is an Indian political activist working on issues of gender, race, and the democratization of politics.

She is the founder of Femme First Foundation, a non-govt organization working to promote women's political leadership in India.

Aribam was also a National General Secretary of the National Students' Union of India, the students' wing of the Indian National Congress.

Aribam is an inaugural VVEngage Fellow for women political leaders at Vital Voices, an American NGO founded by Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright.

She completed her bachelor's degree in Biochemistry with Honors from Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi in 2012.

Aribam joined National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the students’ wing of the Indian National Congress, in July 2012.

In an interview, Aribam mentions how racism towards the north-eastern people in various Indian cities pushed her to join active politics.

In September 2012, Aribam was elected in the Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi.

Subsequently, she contested and won the election for the Executive Committee of the Delhi University Students’ Union.

With it, she became the first North-Easterner to be elected in Delhi University Students’ Union.

In December 2012, she was inducted as a National Secretary in the NSUI by Rahul Gandhi.

She was the youngest person to join the national committee.

She joined politics after the violence against North-east students in July 2012.

Through her work with the NSUI and personal writings, she has repeatedly demanded the implementation of the Bezbaruah Committee recommendations.

She called out BJP for referring to North-eastern Indians as "immigrants", leading to the party issuing a clarification.

In an interview, Aribam sheds light on the responsibility that comes with representing a minority community, "when an individual from a minority community commits a mistake, then it is viewed as the mistake of the whole community and puts a lot more pressure on the representative to perform better as a leader".

Her master's degree thesis was focused on the public perception of stringent rape laws with respect to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013.

At the AICC session held in Jaipur in 2013, Aribam was the lone speaker from the entire North-east region.

In her speech, she focused on the challenges faced by the North-east diaspora across the country.

She played an instrumental role in the Congress party taking up the cause of Net Neutrality in the Indian Parliament in 2015.

As a vocal advocate for menstrual health, Aribam has worked to ensure access to clean and hygienic sanitary products in Indian prisons.

In 2015, she was detained by Delhi Police after a protest demanding greater women's security in the national capital.

Her time in detention was mired in trauma as the prison couldn't provide her basic request for a menstrual pad.

In the run-up to the 16th Lok Sabha elections, Aribam co-anchored the consultations, formulation, and drafting processes of the Student Manifesto for the Indian National Congress.

In March 2016, Aribam was promoted to National General Secretary of the NSUI.

In 2017, Aribam was named as one of Forbes India's 30 Under 30 for her work on policy and politics.

She was the first student from the North-eastern region of India to be elected in the Delhi University Students' Union Executive Committee.

Angellica Aribam was born in Imphal west, Manipur, India to a Manipuri Brahmin family.

She is the youngest of three siblings, born to Aribam M Sharma and (Late) Thoibi Devi.

She moved to New Delhi at age 12 to complete her schooling.

Aribam went to school at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Andrews Ganj.

During her sabbatical from political life in 2017–2018, Aribam was a MOFCOM scholar and completed her Masters’ in Public Policy from Peking University.

She resigned from her position in July 2017 in a bid to create space for younger blood in the system, having served the organisation for five years.

Aribam represented the Indian National Congress on various national and international media platforms.

Aribam is an anti-racism activist.

In March 2020, Aribam faced severe online abuse wherein she was harassed with a derogatory racial slur which is punishable by Indian law.

She filed a complaint with the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police.

In light of the rising racial crimes due to COVID-19, her petition urging the Prime Minister of India to condemn racism received widespread support, following which the Prime Minister issued a statement.

Aribam has been fighting for a free and open internet.

She is a proponent of the principles of Net Neutrality.