Tag: Padma Shr

Radha Bahin Bhatt – The Gandhi of the Hills [UTTARAKHAND]

Radha Behn Bhatt, an Indian Gandhian social activist from Uttarakhand, works for environmental protection and women’s empowerment. She was born on October 16, 1931, in Dhurka village near Almora, Uttarakhand. She was influenced by Sarala Behn, a prominent Gandhian social activist and disciple of Mahatma Gandhi. She is also known as the “Gandhi of the Hills.” In 1951, she joined the Kasturba Mahila Utthan Mandal in Kausani, an ashram dedicated to the upliftment and education of women in the hills of Uttarakhand. Through Gandhian values, she played a major role in strengthening environmental protection, girls’ education, and women’s empowerment. In 1957, she actively participated in the Bhoodan movement started by Vinoba Bhave and also participated in padayatras for land reform in Uttar Pradesh and Assam. She also established vocational training schools for fellow women and taught spinning and weaving to make them self-reliant. She also led the “One Hour School” initiative to improve girls’ access to education. From 1961 to 1965, she worked on issues such as Gram Swaraj, the anti-alcohol movement, forest conservation, women’s empowerment, and the upliftment of adolescent girls who grazed cows and goats. In 1970, when conservation concerns rose in the Himalayas, she actively participated in the Chipko movement, a non-violent grassroots resistance in which villagers, primarily women, adopted the Chipko movement to prevent tree felling. She also advocated for sustainable development practices and campaigned against opencast mining and large dam construction in fragile mountain ecosystems, which threatened local ecosystems and livelihoods. In addition to protests, she led important tree-planting campaigns and contributed to the planting of over a thousand trees in Pithoragarh and. During her long career, she held important leadership positions in various national Gandhian organizations, including serving as President of the Gandhi Peace Foundation in Delhi, and was closely associated with the Himalaya Seva Sangh and the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust, promoting the principles of Gram Swaraj and Sunrise. From 2006 to 2010, she surveyed the Himalayas and rivers of Uttarakhand, during which she opposed hydropower projects being built on the rivers. She also wrote a book titled “Daughters of the Himalayas,” which was published in German and Danish. Awards and Honors