Shruti Nagvanshi is an Indian women's and child's rights activist and an advocate for marginalized groups in India, including the untouchable caste known as Dalit and rural women. She is one of the founding members of People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) and a founder of Savitri Bai Phule Mahila Panchayat, a women’s forum. She has worked with several other projects to empower minorities.
She founded the People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) in 1996, with her husband Lenin Raghuvanshi, historian Mahendra Pratap, musician Vikash Maharaj, and poet Gyanedra Pati. Both she and Lenin are converts to Buddhism. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her contributions to bettering conditions for world peace and for acting as a driving force to prevent the use of masculinity-driven militarist traditions as a weapon of war and conflict.
Personal life
Shruti Nagvanshi was born on 2 January 1974 in the Dashashwmedh area of the Varanasi district in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Inspired by her mother’s encouragement towards a better education, she overcame obstacles and completed her education. She married Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi on 22 February 1992. Their only son, Kabeer Karunik, plays snooker at the national level.
Initial Years
Once Nagvanshi left home to attend college, she realized how lack of opportunity restricts human desire to achieve goals in life. It was this self-belief which gave her the courage to participate in social work, learn, and develop awareness of the world. Her mother remained an inspiration to her to help others grow. She was part of several local social work programmes and later became involved in the Uttar Pradesh chapter of the United Nations Youth Organisation. Marriage in an orthodox hierarchy-conforming family helped her to understand the mind of caste from close proximity. With the formation of JMN/PVCHR she decided to devote herself to her passion and would walk kilometers on foot to reach to the interior villages inhabited by untouchables.
Anti-caste work
She is involved in building relations between various communities through modelling and teaching awareness of individual rights and the rule of law. Her organization PVCHR focuses on reconciliation between the historically marginalized and historically privileged, and represents a secular and right-leaning wing of the larger anti-caste activist movement. Nagvanshi believes the very thought that they can fight against injustice is empowering. This pursuit of empowerment brought structural changes in her adopted villages and intervention areas. Her work has led to increased accessibility to health, education, livelihood and welfare services. Many people from upper castes in India are beginning to embrace an inclusive society.
On malnutrition and children's right to survival
In 2017, she and her team at JanMitra Nyas chose 50 villages and some slums in the most marginalised communities in four blocks of the Varanasi district to work on the issue of children’s health with the support of Child Rights and You (CRY). Maternal, neonatal, and malnourished death declined in these communities.