Anuradha Kapoor

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Anuradha Kapoor is an Indian women rights activist. She is the founder and director of Swayam, a nonprofit organization working for the rights of and end of violence against women.Before becoming a social activist, she was working as a manager of Seagull Books, a publishing house in Kolkata.She met her husband, Naveen Kishore, while working at Seagull Books.When she was working at Seagull Books, she came across a lot of creative people and began taking part in discourses on gender issues, which shaped her thoughts. Simultaneously, she also started volunteering herself in social works. She said, I started working with CINI (Child In Need Institute). I wanted to work for womens issues. I did stints with Jeebika, Nari Nirjatan Pratirodh Mancha and other NGOs in the city. .She realised the issue of violence against women in India while volunteering. At that time, some organizations were counselling women and provided them with legal or other services but were essentially piecemeal efforts. According to her, I felt that there should be organisations that would offer all these services under one roof..To make the lives of women facing violence better, she established Swayam in Kolkata in 1995. She is the director and committee member of Swayam. The organization started as women shelter but soon started giving direct support services for survivors of violence, working with community groups to create violence-free communities, and conducted public education programmes. Swayam is indulged in advocacy, research, publication, and documentation work on violence against women and other related issues. Logo of Swayam.Together with Swayam, Anuradha became a key figure of the movement that saw passing of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, and has since been working to ensure that it is implemented effectively at the state and national levels.Anuradha has organized judicial training as a part of Asian Pacific Advisory Forum on Judicial Education on Equality Issues and has trained with the police, corporate houses, educational institutions, NGOs and CBOs, in countries including India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.Not only has Swayam dealt with violence cases but they have also handled several high profile rape cases including Phoolbagan rape case in 2000 (a disabled teen girl was raped by a couple of constables) and gangrape of a Bangladeshi woman in Howrah Station in the late 90s.Swayam has also joined forces with Eve Enslers One Billion Rising programme and has long been fighting for in-camera proceedings for rape victims. Swayam Team in a Campaign for 1 Billion Rising Revolution.