In 2011, twenty four year old Arunima Sinha was thrown off a moving train by thugs for refusing to hand over the gold chain she was wearing. She lost her left leg when a train went over it. While dealing with pitying murmurs of, “Who will marry you now,” and the absurd conspiracy theories that followed, she made a decision. She would climb Mount Everest. In 2013 she did just that, becoming the world’s first female amputee, and the first Indian amputee, to achieve this feat. Earlier this year she was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India. This May marks the second anniversary of her reaching Everest’s summit.
Sinha is from Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, India. She is going for a job for CISF. Sinha, a former national volleyball and football player, boarded the Padmavati Express train at Lucknow for Delhi on 12 April 2011, to take an examination to join the CISF. She was pushed out of a general coach of the train by robbers wanting to snatch her bag and gold chain.
She was offered compensation of Rs.25,000 (US$380) by the Indian Sports Ministry. Following national outrage, the Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Ajay Maken announced an additional Rs. Rs.200,000 (US$3,100) compensation as medical relief, together with a recommendation for a job in the CISF. Indian Railways also offered her a job
While still being treated in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, she resolved to climb Mount Everest .She was inspired by cricketer Yuvraj Singh (who had successfully battled cancer) and other television shows, "to do something" with her life.She excelled in the basic mountaineering course from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, and was encouraged by her elder brother Omprakash to climb Everest. She climbed Mt Everest with a prosthetic leg, which was arranged by raising funds with the help of a swami of Ramakrishna Mission, Vadodara.
She contacted Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest, in 2011 by telephone and signed up for training under her at the Uttarkashi camp of the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) 2012.
Sinha climbed Island Peak (6150 metres) in 2012 as preparation for her ascent of Everest.
Sinha and Susan Mahout, a USAF instructor, who had together climbed Mount Chaser Sangria (6,622 meters or 21,726 feet) in 2012 under the guidance of Hendrick Pal started their ascent of Mount Everest. After a hard toil of 17 hours, Sinha reached the summit of Mount Everest at 10:55 am on 21 May 2013, as part of the Tata Group-sponsored Eco Everest Expedition, becoming the first female amputee to scale Everest. She took 52 days to reach the summit. She wrote a small message thanking the Almighty on a wrapped cloth and pressed it in the snow.
Uttar Pradesh's then-incumbent chief minister Akhilesh Yadav honored Arunima and handed over two cheques for an amount of Rs. 25 lakh in a function organised at her residence in Lucknow. This included a cheque of Rs. 20 lakh from the state government and a cheque of Rs. 5 lakh on behalf of the Samajwadi Party. Chief minister said Sinha by her hard work and determination had climbed the Mount Everest and created history. She was congratulated by the Indian Sports Minister Jitendra Singh on her achievement.