as popular female flautists in India. Concerning this, Suchismita says: "I think it is due to a lack of prominent women flautists that girls these days don't think of it as an instrument to be played by women... We had no woman role model when we were growing up. One of the things we can do to change that is teach other children ourselves". To that end, the sisters have worked with several organisations, like the Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth, to give interactive performances for students in order for them to learn about India's musical heritage. In January 2014, the sisters gave a presentation combining talk and musical demonstrations at a cultural programme organized by the Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communications of Pune. They consider the flute to be "a full-fledged member of the Indian classical music family". The sisters hold that at its root, the flute is a folk instrument with a history embedded by legends of the Mahabharata period when Krishna wooed gopis with his bansuri or flute. Debopriya Chatterjee received a Sangeet Natak Academy award in the Hindustani Instrumental category as a flute artist from the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar (Prize to Young Artists) in 2008. Both are graded artists of Aakashwani. They were honored as Sur Mani at the Kal Ke Kalakar conference in 2001. They have also been featured performers at Swami Haridas Sangeet Sammelan, a noted Indian classical music conference. In November 2021, Debopriya and Suchismita Chatterjee were conferred upon the prestigious Rashtriya Pandit Kumar Gandharva Samman (2019-20) instituted by the government of Madhya Pradesh for their outstanding contribution to the Indian classical music. References Living people Indian flautists Year of birth missing (living people)