Rubina Dilaik to Rupali Ganguly; TV actresses who played path-breaking and powerful roles on-screen

Women's Day is around the corner and they should be appreciated and respected everyday. However, a particular day has been declared to make them feel extra special. Being a woman isn't easy, it comes with severe challenges, and how do they overcome such obstacles to lead a normal life is commendable. Our television actresses have also been striving hard to spread the importance of treating women equally and liberating them through education through their shows. Let's take a look at such powerful and path-breaking roles:

Rupali Ganguly plays the titular role of Anupamaa in the show, who has always been a homemaker. But after 25 years of marriage, she learns about her husband's extra-marital affair. This leaves her shattered but she gathers all the broken pieces, educates herself, gets a job as a cooking and dance teacher, becomes independent and runs the whole family by herself. She decides to divorce her husband despite the family's wish and re-live life on her terms.

This show paved ways for the respectful recognition of the eunuchs in our society as the third gender. In this show, actress Rubina Dilaik is born as a eunuch but her family keeps her away from her original identity and deprives her of a normal childhood unlike others. She learns about it through the 'Hijra' community as they come to take her along with them. History is repeated on the show as Jigyasa Singh, is also born as a eunuch in the family. While her only dream since childhood has been of becoming a bride, the truth breaks her into pieces. Both Rubina and Jigyasa's characters showed how our society looks down upon the third gender, and instead they should be treated equally.

Dipika Singh played the role of Sandhya Rathi in this series, whose father dies in a fire accident. Her only dream is to become an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. However, after her father's demise, her distant family gets her forcefully married to an uneducated confectioner (halwai). However, how her husband and she fights against his family so that she becomes a successful IPS officer forms the crux of the story.

This was a story about the father-in-law (Vishwajeet Pradhan) sexually assaulting Ridhi Dogra's character, who later becomes his daughter-in-law and taking physical advances of his sister-in-law (Kamya Panjabi) too by gaining sympathy. His wife Indrani Haldar aka Devyani is aware of everything but swallows the lump of pain by keeping those secrets in her heart. Later, she, along with Ridhi and Kamya's characters, turn rebellious and go against him. They unmask his real character and free themselves of the guilt and suffering.

Sakshi Tanwar broke the taboo surrounding how girls couldn't get married in their late 30s or 40s. And, for the sake of her brother's marriage in the show, she agrees to marry the well-reputed businessman Ram Kapoor, who is in his late 40s. Sakshi's character showed how the spark between a couple can be kept alive at any age.

The veteran actress Neena Gupta is an inspiration to women in real lives, too. Her show Saans was way ahead of its time. Neena Gupta's character Priya was happily married to Gautam, until they became friends with the character Manisha. Ultimately, Manisha falls in love with Gautam and they have an extra-marital affair. Priya fights for her rights confidently instead of wallowing in self-pity.

This was a weekly show and Mandira Bedi played the role of Shanti. The show spoke about the tribulations and challenges women have to go through in society and how Shanti battles them.

Heena was a very popular show and is still fresh in the minds of the audience. Simone Singh played the lead role of a girl Heena, who finds out on the wedding night that her husband Sameer has undying love for another woman named Rubina. They end up getting a divorce and Sameer's best friend Akram marries Heena. Heena and Akram live a happy life until Rubina enters their life as Akram's second wife. This leaves her traumatised. Heena frees herself from this marriage, too, and gives birth to twin children. She ends up being with Sameer at the end after facing all life's odds.

Renuka Shahane (Pooja) gets married to Amit Behl (Mahesh) as per her family's choice. However, her marriage is doomed from the wedding night itself, when Mahesh walks out saying that this marriage is meaningless to him as he loves somebody else. Pooja is sure that she doesn't want to return to her parents' home and become a burden. A young Pooja wants to study and fly high in life. She receives support from her brother-in-law Ravi (Salil Ankola) and they develop attraction for each other. Pooja's mother-in-law is against their friendly equation but she doesn't back out.

Balika Vadhu dealt with child marriages and how Anandi, with the help of her-in-laws, completed her education. Later, she finds out about her husband's second marriage, and decides to move ahead in life. She becomes an independent woman, who governs the village and educates the children of her village. She also finds love once again and fights against practises of child marriages and injustice towards women's rights.