Anita Gupta is an Indian social entrepreneur, organic farmer and tribal activist. She has arranged training for more than 50,000 rural women.

Life

Gupta came from a poor family and she witnessed her grandfather beating a girl he had taken to bear his children. She later said that she thought that if the girl had an education then she would have been empowered to resist his abuse. She comes from Bhojpur in Bihar where she has arranged training for more than 50,000 rural women in handicrafts, crochet and jewellery. She and her brother created the organisation Bhojpur Mahila Kala Kendra when she was ten years old in 1993 and Gupta later served as its president. The organisation would encourage women to get involved telling them that if they earned money then they could send their children to school. The organisation was transformed when it registered as a society so that it could receive money from the government. The organisation is located in

Arrah Arrah (also transliterated as Ara) is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district, India, Bhojpur district (formerly known as Shahabad district) in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the headquarters of Bhojpur district, India, Bhojpur ...

and it says it has create employment for 10,000 women. Her organisation gained the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and DC Handicrafts as partners. In 2017

NITI Aayog The NITI Aayog (; abbreviation for National Institution for Transforming India) serves as the apex public policy think tank of the Government of the Republic of India, and the nodal agency tasked with catalyzing economic development, and foste ...

, the public policy think tank, gave her a "Women Transforming India Award". On 8 March 2022, she was invited to the Presidential Palace (

Rashtrapati Bhawan The Rashtrapati Bhavan (, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrapati Bhavana''; ; formerly Viceroy's House (1931–1947) and Government House (1947–1950)) is the official residence of the President of the Republic of India at the western end of Rajpath, Rai ...

) in New Delhi to receive the highest award for women in India, 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 presented by the presi ...

. Because of the

COVID-19 pandemic in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). As of , according to Indian government ...

, there had been no award in the previous year. There for the government had invited awardees for the previous year and this year. President

Ram Nath Kovind Ram Nath Kovind ( ; born 1 October 1945) is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the president of India from 2017 to 2022. He is the first person from Uttar Pradesh to serve as the president. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...

gave the award to Gupta and 28 other women. On the night before the award. they got to meet Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gupta, Anita 21st-century Indian businesswomen 21st-century Indian businesspeople Nari Shakti Puraskar winners Living people 1980s births Year of birth uncertain People from Bhojpur district, India