Swaraj Vidwan is an Indian social worker and activist for the underrepresented. She is a member of the

National Commission for Scheduled Castes The National Commission for Scheduled Castes is an Indian constitutional body under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India established with a view to provide safeguards against the exploitation of S ...

. She was awarded the

Nari Shakti Puraskar The Nari Shakti Puraskar is an annual award given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Government of India to individual women or to institutions that work towards the cause of women empowerment. It is the highest civilian hono ...

by the government of India for her work with vulnerable and marginalised groups.

Life

She works with vulnerable and marginalised groups. Around 2000 she started her work looking after people in

Uttarkashi Uttarkashi, meaning Kashi of the north, is a town located in Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand, India. Uttarkashi town is headquarters of the district. Uttarkashi is also known as Somya Kashi. Uttarkashi is a religious place for spiritual and ...

. She set up over 100 self help groups to empower the members and also arranged funding allowing 160 poor women to marry. She arranged for 1200 women to find a pension and for another 500 women to arrange finance to become self employed. 800 girls who had difficulty attending school were found money to cover their school books and their school uniform.

Gomukh Gomukh, also known as "Gaumukh" or "Gomukhi" (Hindi: गौमुख or गौमुखी ; Assamese and Bengali: গোমুখ or গোমুখী), is the terminus or pout of the Gangotri Glacier and the source of the Bhagirathi River, on ...

is a glacier and Vidwan arranged for 120 people to clean it up and improve the environment. More urgently she helped organise assistance after the

2013 North India floods In June 2013, a mid-day cloudburst centered on the North Indian state of Uttarakhand caused devastating floods and landslides, becoming the country's worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. The rainfall received that month was far grea ...

. On International Woman's Day in 2015 she received the

. She was one of the first eight Nari Shakti Awards for her leadership and achievement the year before. The award was made by the then Indian President

Pranab Mukherjee Dr. Pranab Mukherjee (11 December 193531 August 2020) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 13th president of India from 2012 until 2017. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the India ...

. Vidwan helps rape victims, particularly where she suspects that the police are ignoring cases where the victim is from a lower caste. In 2018 she and the

were interceding on behalf of a 16 year old rape victim. The man the police accused of the crime died in custody. Vidwan wanted the police person charged with murder as she suspected that the man's convenient death may be hiding the real rapists.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vidwan, Swaraj Living people People from Uttarakhand Indian women activists Indian human rights activists Year of birth missing (living people)