City & State names Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar in 2024 Above & Beyond: Women list
Rajkumar is the only Indian American on the list
Jenifer Rajkumar / http://nys.gov
Indian American Assembly woman from New York, Jenifer Rajkumar, was named in the 2024 Above & Beyond: Women list by City & State, a NY-based media publication among other women making history in New York.
The organization recognized Rajkumar’s journey as a daughter of immigrants from India to being the first South Asian woman elected to state office in New York. Having served in the assembly since 2021, the publication credited her for representing the burgeoning South Asian community of Queens, New York.
I am proud to be featured on this week's @CityAndStateNY cover recognizing women making history in New York. pic.twitter.com/p7Pr8LOVPA
— Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar (@JeniferRajkumar) March 25, 2024
Rajkumar was instrumental in spearheading the legislation to make Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, an official school holiday in New York. She also introduced legislation to establish New York’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Commission and sponsored a measure to incorporate domestic workers – who are overwhelmingly immigrants of color – into the state’s human rights law.
Prior to her political career, Rajkumar was a successful lawyer and won her first case, a workplace discrimination suit on behalf of 5,000 women. She also collaborated with the U.S. Department of Justice on cases combating corporate fraud and excess.
Rajkumar has also served as a professor at the City University of New York (CUNY)’s Lehman College and as a fellow at the National Women’s Law Center advancing policy at the federal level advancing women’s equality.
For her achievements the publication had previously named her as a “40 Under 40” Rising Star. She also received the New York County Democratic Party’s Bella Abzug Award and the WIN Young Women of Achievement Award, among others for her political endeavours.
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