Renana Jhabvala is an Indian social worker based in Ahmedabad, India, who has been active for decades in organising women into organisations and trade unions in India, and has been extensively involved in policy issues relating to poor women and the informal economy.
[1] In 1990, she was awarded a Padma Shri from the Government of India for her contributions in the field of social work.
[2] In April 2012, she became Chancellor of Gandhigram Rural Institute, a Deemed University in Tamil Nadu, India.
She worked first with the women workers stitching quilts in the Muslim area of Ahmedabad where she was instrumental in forming the first Cooperative in SEWA.
[3] She was active in fostering the growth of SEWA across India,[7] taking the experiences of the organisation to States like Madhya Pradesh and Bihar and most recently to Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
In 2002 she became the Chair of SEWA Bank and helped to increase finance for poor women in many parts of the country.