Malleshwari participated in the "National Junior weight lifting championship", and stood first. She is also a recipient of the civilian honour Padma Shri in 1999. Malleswari was married in 1997, and moved to Yamuna Nagar short break from competitive weight-lifting and returned to participate in the Bangkok Asian Games in 1998.
She broke her own records in the Senior National Weightlifting Championship in 1998, and India"s first medal, a weightlifting silver, in the 1998 Asian Games.