Reema Nanavaty receives Padma Shri

Reema Nanavaty of Self Employed Women’s Association (Sewa) received the Padma Shri award from the president of India Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday evening.

The awards were announced in January this year and conferred at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in a ceremony in New Delhi on Saturday. Veteran journalist Devendra Patel also received the award from the President.

Other recipients like industrialist Adi Godrej, Olympic medal winners Yogeshwar Dutt and Vijay Kumar, actor Nana Patekar and designer Ritu Kumar were also simultaneously conferred the award.

Nanavaty, who now leads SEWA, works for economic development of seventeen million rural families across India. Born on May 22, 1964 in Ahmedabad, Nanavaty graduated in science from Gujarat University and was selected to IAS services of Government of India.

She is credited with building popular brands of Sewa like Rudi and Hansiba of organic food products and fashion apparels respectively. Over the last decade, she has helped victims of 2001 earthquake and 2002 communal riots in association with the state and government of India under projects like Jeevika and Shantha respectively. Sewa currently works in war-torn countries of Afghanistan and Sri Lanka to rehabilitate war widows and their families.