Haryana Marked 60 Years of Statehood on 1 November 2026 at Kurukshetra, Where the President Honoured Its Women, From Sucheta Kripalani and Kalpana Chawla to Manisha Bhanwala

President Droupadi Murmu came to Kurukshetra on 1 November 2026 for the Hirak Jayanti, the diamond jubilee of Haryana’s formation, exactly 60 years after the state came into being. She launched the Diamond Jubilee logo, PTI reported, with Governor Ashim Kumar Ghosh and Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini present.

The Statesman reports that the programme at Kurukshetra University opened with Vande Mataram and a presentation on six decades of development. The President inspected an exhibition on the state’s achievements and its ambitions for 2047, and earlier in the day had prayed at the Shri Devikoop Bhadrakali Temple. The Press Information Bureau’s release says she credited the people of Haryana with contributions from the freedom struggle to social change, democracy, literature and science.

The Act behind 1 November 1966

The Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 defines the “appointed day” as 1 November 1966. Section 3 formed the State of Haryana on that day from the Hissar, Rohtak, Gurgaon, Karnal and Mahendragarh districts of the old Punjab, together with the Narwana and Jind tehsils of Sangrur district and three tehsils of Ambala district. Section 13 gave its Assembly 54 seats.

The Haryana Vidhan Sabha’s list of former Speakers begins with Shanno Devi, from 6 December 1966 to 17 March 1967. The President named her as the first Speaker of the newly formed Assembly. The districts, the economy and the Chandigarh and canal questions are set out in the Haryana profile, so this piece stays with the anniversary.

The women she named

The President said Sucheta Kripalani, born in Ambala in 1908, became India’s first woman chief minister. The Better India dates her term in Uttar Pradesh from 1963 to 1967. She also named Kalpana Chawla, born in Karnal. NASA’s biographical data records that Chawla flew on STS-87 in 1997, a flight of 252 orbits, and on STS-107, which ended with the loss of Columbia on 1 February 2003. Her path from Karnal to orbit is in the Kalpana Chawla profile.

The address text adds measures the President said she had been told about: reserved allotments of ration depots for women, 50 percent representation of women in panchayati raj institutions, and a welfare board for transgender persons.

From the Ghadar Party to a 12-year-old in Rewari

She also spoke of Kanshi Ram of Ambala, counted among Haryana’s earliest martyrs of the twentieth century, who with Lala Har Dayal was one of those who founded the Ghadar Party in San Francisco. The British hanged him in 1915. The President placed it in November of that year, while Executed Today, a record of executions, files his hanging under 27 March 1915.

For 1930 she told the gathering of a 12-year-old girl from Rewari who took part in the civil disobedience movement. Records show, the President said, that the girl bought salt in defiance of the salt law with every rupee she had saved, putting by two paise a day over years, and gave the whole sum to the movement. The Statesman reports that she asked the state government to collect the details and bring them before the public. The address also lists Rao Tula Ram, Sir Chhotu Ram, Pandit Neki Ram Sharma and Dada Lakhmi Chand among the state’s inheritance.

Daughters and the sex ratio at birth

The national campaign Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter) was launched at Panipat on 22 January 2015, the Press Information Bureau records. The President said the ratio of girls to boys at birth in Haryana was 871 in 2014 and had risen to about 915 by November 2025. The state’s Department of Women and Child Development gives the same two figures per 1,000 boys, and adds that the ratio peaked at 923 in 2019 and was 916 in 2023.

The department’s note also reports institutional deliveries rising from 35.7 percent in 2005-06 to 94.9 percent in the fifth National Family Health Survey, and first-trimester antenatal registration from 51.4 percent to 85.2 percent. The President said she was confident that central and state efforts would bring the ratio to parity.

Sport: seven of India’s 13 golds at Glasgow

The President named Manu Bhaker, Sweety Boora and Jasmine Lamboria, and then Manisha Bhanwala. Bhanwala won the 59kg final at the World Wrestling Championships in Astana on 30 October 2026, beating Abigail Nette of the United States 8-6 after trailing 0-6. United World Wrestling calls her India’s first women’s world champion. Khel Now places her in Siwaha village in Jind district. The match is told in full in the Bhanwala article, and the sport’s wider Haryana record in the piece on Manu Bhaker and Indian shooting.

At the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where India won 13 golds, 17 silvers and nine bronzes, The Bridge counts seven of the golds as Haryana’s, the largest state share. The Statesman names the winners: Preeti Pawar, Jaismine Lamboria, Sakshi Choudhary, Sachin Siwach, Priya Ghanghas and Ankush Panghal in boxing, and the para-athlete Sharmila Dhankar. The President said five of the seven were won by women. The Statesman adds that Neeraj Chopra won a silver for the state.

The state paid Rs 1.50 crore to each Commonwealth gold medallist, Rs 75 lakh for silver and Rs 50 lakh for bronze. The same report says Haryana has opened 2,000 sports nurseries and 25 residential academies, and that its sports budget is Rs 668.42 crore.

A hydrogen train from Jind

The President also pointed to the hydrogen-powered train between Jind and Sonipat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off India’s first hydrogen train from Jind station on 17 July 2026. Business Standard reports that the 89-km run takes two hours with 12 intermediate halts.

What the figures show as of 6 November 2026

The sex-ratio figures come from more than one official series and do not match year for year. The Tribune reported on 1 September 2026, from official data, that the ratio was 923 in 2025 and 900 in 2026 up to June, and listed 922 for 2020, 914 for 2021, 917 for 2022, 916 for 2023 and 910 for 2024. The state department’s own note gives 915 as of November 2025.

The same report says the department has planned a five-day film festival for adolescents and a state-level gathering of women panches and sarpanches under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao.