Anuradha Kapoor is an Indian social activist and the director and founder of Swayam, a non-profit organization dedicated to women empowerment and ending violence against women in India.
Wiki/Biography
Anuradha Kapoor was born on Wednesday, October 16, 1963 (57 years old in 2020) in Kolkata, West Bengal. Her star sign is Libra. She attended La Martiniere Girls School in Kolkata. She obtained her Bachelor of Commerce degree from Lady Shri Ram College for Women in New Delhi.
appearance
Eye color: Black
Hair color: gray and white
Family and caste
She was born into a wealthy and successful entrepreneurial family. Her husband is Naveen Kishore, the owner of Seagull Books, a Kolkata-based publishing house. She met her current husband while working at the publishing house.
Anuradha Kapoor and her husband
She has a son named Varun Kishore who is a musician, composer and producer.
Anuradha Kapoor with her husband and son
Profession
Before becoming a social activist, she was a manager at Seagull Books, a publishing house in Kolkata. While working at Seagull Books, she met many creative people and started participating in discussions on gender issues, which shaped her sensibilities. In addition to work, she also did a lot of volunteer work. She said,
I started working with CINI (Child Help Institute). I wanted to work for women’s issues. I worked for a while with Jeebika, Nari Nirjatan Pratirodh Mancha and other NGOs in the city.
It was during her volunteer days that she realized that the issue of violence against women in India was rarely discussed by the media and society. There were organizations that provided counseling, legal or other services to women, but they were largely piecemeal efforts. According to her,
I think there should be an organization that can provide all these services under one roof.”
To bring about change, she founded Swayam in 1995, a nonprofit organization dedicated to women’s rights and ending violence against women in India. She serves on Swayam’s board of directors and committee. Originally a women’s shelter, the organization has since become a provider of direct support services to survivors of violence, works with community groups to create violence-free communities, and conducts public education programs.
The symbol of Swayam
The organization is involved in advocacy, research, publication and documentation on violence against women and other related issues. She played a key role in the passage of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005) along with Swayam and has been working to ensure its effective implementation at the state and national levels. In addition to this, she has conducted judicial training as part of the Asia Pacific Advisory Forum on Justice Education Equality and has provided training to police, corporates, educational institutions, NGOs and community organizations in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In addition to handling domestic violence cases, Swayam has handled several high-profile rape cases, including the Phoolbagan rape case in 2000 (a disabled girl was raped by two policemen) and the gang rape of a Bangladeshi woman at Howrah station in the late 1990s. Swayam has also been involved in Eve Ensler’s One Billion Rising project and has long advocated for the right of rape victims to have in camera trials.
Swayam team joins the 1 Billion Rising Revolution
Awards and Achievements
- Tata Steel Kolkata honoured for highest fundraising in Kolkata in 2019
Anuradha Kapoor attended an event held by Tata Steel Kolkata and was honored
- 2018 Business Today’s Most Influential Women Award
- Member of the Civil Society Advisory Group, UN Women Cluster Offices in India, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives
Facts/Trivia
- Her colleagues and people of Swayam called her “Anu Di”.
- Anuradha Kapoor is an Ashoka Fellow (since 1996) and an Eisenhower Fellow.
- In May 2016, Swayam received the Canadian Council for International Cooperation Award for Women’s Rights Project.
- In 2014, she contributed to the chapter on violence against women in the Civil Society Alternative Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
- She has also been a guest lecturer in women’s rights courses conducted by the Department of Women’s Studies at Calcutta University and Jadavpur University.
- She has also been invited by United Nations agencies and civil society organizations to speak at various international forums, and spoke at the International Conference on Human Rights, Equality and Gender organized by the UNESCO Chair at the University of Connecticut, USA in 2006, 2008 and 2013.
- She has also been involved in research and manual development on violence against women.
- In 2020, she appeared in the Karamveer Special of the reality game show Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by Amitabh Bachchan. She was also featured alongside Indian actor and director Ratna Pathak Shah.
Anuradha Kapoor as Kaun Banega Crorepati
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education