Hekani Jakhalu Kense
Hekani Jakhalu Kense (; born after 1976) is an Indian politician and social entrepreneur from Nagaland. She set up the non-governmental organization YouthNet to help the youths of Nagaland pursue business opportunities. She was recognised with the Nari Shakti Puraskar award in 2018. In 2023, Jakhalu along with Salhoutuonuo Kruse became the first women from Nagaland to be elected to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly. She is a member of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP). Early life Hekani Jakhalu was born in Dimapur, Nagaland. She was educated at Bishop Cotton Girls' School in Bengaluru and earned a bachelor's degree in political science at Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi. She then studied for a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Delhi and took a Master of Laws at the University of San Francisco. Career After working in the United States, Jakhalu returned to Delhi and began a career as a lawyer. She was made a partner in the firm but having seen firsthand the number of young people from Nagaland migrating to Delhi, she decided in 2006 to move to Kohima (the capital of Nagaland) in order to set up a non-governmental organization (NGO) called YouthNet which aims to