Ahmedabad is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 makes it the fifth-most populous city in India, and the encompassing urban agglomeration population estimated at 6,357,693 is the seventh-most populous in India. Ahmedabad is located near the banks of the Sabarmati River, 25 km (16 mi) from the capital of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, also known as its twin city.
Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), meaning "service" in several Indian languages, is a trade union based in Ahmedabad, India, that promotes the rights of low-income, independently employed female workers. With over 1.6 million participating women, SEWA is the largest organization of informal workers in the world. Self-employed women are defined as those who do not receive a salary like that of formally-employed workers and therefore have a more precarious income and life. SEWA is framed around the goal of full employment in which a woman secures for her family: income, food, health care, child care, and shelter. The principles behind accomplishing these goals are struggle and development, meaning negotiating with stakeholders and providing services, respectively.
Ela Ramesh Bhatt was an Indian cooperative organiser, activist and Gandhian, who founded the Self-Employed Women's Association of India (SEWA) in 1972, and served as its general secretary from 1972 to 1996. She was the chancellor of the Gujarat Vidyapith from 7 March 2015 to 19 October 2022. A lawyer by training, Bhatt was a part of the international labour, cooperative, women, and micro-finance movements and won several national and international awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1977), Right Livelihood Award (1984) for "helping home-based producers to organise for their welfare and self-respect" and the Padma Bhushan (1986).
Madhusudan Devram Mistry is an Indian politician belonging to the Indian National Congress.
Mrinalini Vikram Sarabhai was an Indian classical dancer, choreographer and instructor. She was the founder and director of the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, an institute for imparting training in dance, drama, music and puppetry, in the city of Ahmedabad. She received Padma Bhushan in 1992 and Padma Shri in 1965. She also received many other citations in recognition of her contribution to art.
Vijay Pandurang Bhatkar PB PS is an Indian computer scientist, IT leader and educationalist. He is best known as the architect of India's national initiative in supercomputing where he led the development of Param supercomputers. He is a Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, and Maharashtra Bhushan awardee. Indian computer magazine Dataquest placed him among the pioneers of India's IT industry. He was the founder executive director of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and is currently working on developing exascale supercomputing for India.
Kalpathi Ganpathi "K.G." Subramanyan was an Indian artist. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2012.
Vidushi Manju Mehta is an Indian classical sitar player.
Renana Jhabvala is an Indian social worker based in Ahmedabad, India, who has been active for decades in organising women into organisations and trade unions in India, and has been extensively involved in policy issues relating to poor women and the informal economy. She is best known for her long association with the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), India, and for her writings on issues of women in the informal economy.
Martha Chen is an American academic, scholar and social worker, who is presently a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and senior advisor of the global research-policy-action network WIEGO and a member of the Advisory Board of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER). Martha is a development practitioner and scholar who has worked with the working poor in India, South Asia, and around the world. Her areas of specialization are employment, poverty alleviation, informal economy, and gender. She lived in Bangladesh working with BRAC, one of the world's largest non-governmental organizations, and in India, as field representative of Oxfam America for India and Bangladesh for 15 years.
Anasuya or Anusyabehn Sarabhai was a pioneer of the women’s labour movement in India. She founded the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association, India's oldest union of textile workers, in 1920 and Kanyagruha, in 1927 to educate girls of the mills..She was also a beloved friend and pupil of Mahatma Gandhi who considered her "Pujya"("Revered"), and it was Gandhi who made her lifelong president of Majdoor Mahajan Sangh. She was the close associate of Gandhi during his initial struggle of the Indian Independence Movement and helped him establish his ashram at Sabarmati.
Bholabhai Patel was an Indian Gujarati author. He taught numerous languages at Gujarat University and did comparative studies of literature in different languages. He translated extensively and wrote essays and travelogues. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2008.
Laila Tyabji is an Indian social worker, designer, writer, and craft activist. She is one of the founders of Dastkar, a Delhi-based non governmental organization, working for the revival of traditional crafts in India. She was honored by the Government of India in 2012 with the Indian civilian award of Padma Shri. She is the daughter of late Badruddin Tyabji, ICS, who was a senior Indian civil servant and diplomat.
Indumati Chimanlal Sheth was an Indian independence activist, politician, social worker and educationist from Gujarat. Born in Ahmedabad and influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, she participated in the independence movement and later served as a deputy education minister of the Bombay State and education minister of Gujarat. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 1970 for her social work.
Runa Banerjee is an Indian social worker and the co-founder of the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), Lucknow, a non governmental organization promoting the interests of the poor working women of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where she serves as the General Secretary and the Chief executive officer. She was one among the PeaceWomen Across the Globe who were collectively nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, which was eventually won by Mohamed ElBaradei. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2007, for her contributions to Indian society.
Muktaben Pankajkumar Dagli is a social worker from Gujarat, India. She works for blind and disabled people and associated with several organisations. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2019.
Sharda Mehta was an Indian social worker, proponent of women's education, and a Gujarati writer. Born to a family of social reformers, she was one of the first two women graduates in the modern-day Gujarat state of India. She established institutes for women's education and women's welfare. She wrote several essays and an autobiography as well as translated some works.
Pushpa Janardanrai Mehta, also known as Pushpaben Mehta, was an Indian social worker and politician from Gujarat. She founded and headed several women and child welfare organisations in Ahmedabad and Saurashtra region. She served as the member of legislative assemblies of Saurashtra, Bombay and Gujarat states consecutively from 1952 to 1962. She served as the member of Rajya Sabha from 1966 to 1972. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1956.
Lata Desai is a medical doctor from the Indian State of Gujarat who is 1980 along with her husband Dr. Anil Desai and a few friends founded the Society for Education Welfare and Action - Rural, a voluntary organization devoted to health and development activities in the tribal area of South Gujarat.
