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Reema Nanavaty

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Reema Nanavaty
Born (1964-05-22) 22 May 1964 (age 60)
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Resting placeAhmedabad
OccupationSocial worker
SpouseMihir Bhatt
ChildrenTwo
AwardsPadma Shri

Reema Nanavaty is an Indian developmental worker based in Ahmedabad, India. She has been active for three decades in organising women into Co-operative organisations, Enterprises and Trade Union in India. She is best known for her long association with Self-Employed Women's Association of India[1] and for building women livelihoods and enterprises within 18 States in India in neighbouring countries of Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan.

She was honoured by the Government of India, in 2013, with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for her contributions to the field of social service.[2]

Biography

If the villagers of Gokhantar, in the arid deserts of western Gujarat state have a supply of sweet water today, they have their womenfolk to thank for it says Reema Nanavaty.[3]

Reema Nanavaty was born in Ahmedabad, in the Indian state of Gujarat, on 22 May 1964. She was born to Bharati Nanavaty and Rameshchandra Nanavaty. Her grandfather Mahendrarai Nanavaty was a well known labour lawyer who worked for the Textile Labour Association (TLA) founded by Mahatma Gandhi. Her maternal grandfather, Shyamprasad Vasavada was a Gandhian and a Labour leader, General Secretary of Textile Labour Association[4], from where SEWA was born. He worked closely with Anasuya Sarabhai – on whom Reema’s family curated an exhibition – “Motaben” in 2012.[5]

Nanavaty was raised and schooled in Ahmedabad. She pursued a masters in Microbiology with Medical Laboratory Technician training and graduated in Science from the Gujarat University.[6] Opting for a career of civil service, she passed the civil services examination (IAS).[6] However, her stay there lasted only one year as she quit the service to take up full-time social service.[1][7]

Upon resigning from the Indian Administrative Service in 1985 she joined the rural wing of SEWA Self-Employed Women's Association of India, an NGO founded by Ela Bhatt, a Gandhian and social worker. She developed a regional rural water supply scheme into an integrated water project. She stayed on with SEWA and expanded the project into an on-going Women, Water and Work campaign of 40000 women, making women central to water decisions in the process. In 1999, she was elected as the General Secretary of SEWA. Since then, she has expanded SEWA membership to 530,000 making SEWA the single largest union of informal sector workers in India.[8] It was under her leadership, SEWA started self-help groups and a retail distribution network, Rudi, to take the goods produced by SEWA sisters to 40000 households.

In 2001, Reema Nanavaty launched Jeevika project, in association with the Government of Gujarat and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), an initiative to bring relief to the 2001 Gujarat earthquake victims and their families.[6] A year later, she started Shanta, a relief programme to aid the 2002 Gujarat riots victims.[1][6] She has taken SEWA out of Gujarat and the activities of the organization, now, spans across the country from Jammu and Kashmir to Assam. They are also involved in war torn Afghanistan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.[1][6]

Reema is currently member of the Advisory Council on Gender of the World Bank Group. She was also invited as a member of International Labor Organization’s High Level Global Commission on Future of Work.[9] She was the only commissioner representing the informal sector workers, self-employed workers and the rural workers union in the entire commission. She has also been invited as a member of the UN High-level Dialogue`s Technical Working Group on Energy Action to Advance Other SDGs.[10]  

Personal Life

She is married to Mihir Bhatt, an Architect and Urban Planner and Founder of All India Disaster Mitigation Institute.[11] They have two sons Somnath and Rameshwar Bhatt.

Controversies

WikiLeaks cable 41091 revealed that a United States diplomatic cable sent by the U.S. Consul General (CG) in Mumbai, Michael S. Owen, on September 22, 2005, quoted SEWA general secretary Reemaben Nanawati as telling him that the organisation was facing the “wrath” of the State government for “resisting” pressure.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "SEWA". SEWA. 2014. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  2. ^ "Padma 2013". The Hindu. 26 January 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  3. ^ Ray, Bharati (2014). Google Books. ISBN 9780761934097. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  4. ^ "Six Decades of Textile Labour Association, Ahmedabad" (PDF). Six Decades of Textile Labour Association, Ahmedabad. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  5. ^ "An exhibition on Ahmedabad's forgotten heroine". Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e "DNA India". DNA India. 21 April 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  7. ^ "DNA 1". DNA India. 26 January 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  8. ^ "Session on Women as Economic Players in Sustainable Development". World Trade Organisation. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  9. ^ "Global Commission on the Future of Work". International Labour Organisation. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  10. ^ "Reema Nanavaty  Director, SEWA (Self-Employed Women's Association)". World Bank Group. World Bank Group. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  11. ^ "Lunch with BS: Reema Nanavaty". Business Standard. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  12. ^ "Gujarat tried to use SEWA for communal propaganda". The Hindu. Retrieved 9 January 2023.

Further reading

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