Reema Nanavaty

Biography

Reema Nanavaty has been working with the SEWA since over 35 years expanding its membership to over 1.5 million members, making it the single largest union of informal sector women workers.

Reema facilitated rebuilding lives and livelihoods of 60000 earthquake affected rural women and 40000 riot-affected members. She is leading the rehabilitation programs in Afghanistan and in Srilanka; providing vocational training in rural livelihood security to war-affected widows.

Reema oversees 4813 self-help groups (SHG), 160 co-operatives and 15 economic federations, pan India including 16 states, and also in 7 South-Asian countries, focusing on women’s economic empowerment by building women owned enterprises, building women led supply chains, introducing modern ICT-based tools and facilitating Green-Energy initiatives and livelihoods.

In 2008, she also initiated the rehabilitation programme in war torn Afghanistan with the support from Government of India. The programme trained the local afghani women on different livelihood skills and the local women have also successfully set-up their local Association.

She was honored by Padma Shri for her contribution in area of Social Services in 2013.

Reema is currently member of the Advisory Council on Gender of the World Bank Group.

Reema Nanavaty was invited as a member of the International Labour Organization’s High Level Global Commission on Future of Work. She is 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.