Meera Khanna

Meera Khanna is an Indian writer, poet, and gender rights activist. She is the trustee and Executive Vice President of the Guild for Service, which was founded by V. Mohini Giri.[1] She spearheaded a global alliance called “The Last Woman First."[2] Meera is also co-founder and South Asia chapter chair of Every Woman Coalition.

Education

Meera completed her schooling at Pune and Firozpur, India. She obtained graduate honors and master’s degrees in English Literature from Delhi University.

Career

Meera works in the development sector and focuses on women’s empowerment and capacity building, especially in rural India. She is the trustee and Executive Vice President of the Guild of Service.[1][3] Under her leadership, the  Guild of Service has established and run shelter homes and capacity-building, family counselling, and production centers, as well as schools for children from marginalized communities. The  Guild of Service also currently runs homes for destitute women in Vrindavan, Godhra, Nagapattinam, and Srinagar. Meera also helped establish and run homes for militancy-affected women and children in Srinagar, and Baramulla, Kashmir. 

Meera lead a global alliance called “The Last Woman First.”[2] She is the co-founder of Every Woman Coalition, and Director of the South Asian Network for Widows’ Empowerment in Development. She is a trustee of Navdanya, an advisor at the War Widows Association, and a member of the Civil Society Advisory Group under UN Women, India. She has served as a consultant to the Government of India’s High Level Committee on the Status of Women, and was a member of two Expert Committees on Widows, constituted by the National Commission for Women and the Supreme Court of India.[4][5]

Meera was also the Founder-Trustee of Women's Initiative for Peace in South Asia,[6] through which she led a Women's Delegation to Pakistan and coordinated the South Asian Women Writers and a Creative Workshop that involved an exhibition by South Asian women photographers, as well as South Asian theater festival, Imaging Peace.

Meera also drafted the Resolution on Widows for UN Action, which was presented to the first Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet. That resolution was supported by more than 80 organizations across the world. Meera was a speaker at the UN Human Rights Council 42nd session (09/20/2019) as part of the Widows in Crisis and Conflict Panel.[7] Meera also co-edited "Mantras for Positive Ageing" with Dr V Mohini Giri. The book carries a foreword by His Holiness The Dalai Lama.[8]

Books

  • If there be a Paradise (Gulshan Publications, 2012)
  • Living Death: The Trauma of Widowhood in India (Gyan Publishing House, 2012)
  • In a state of violent peace (Harper Collins, 2015)
  • Breaking Paths (Niyogi Books, 2019)
  • Mantras for Positive Ageing (co-editor, Pippa Rann Books and Media, 2021)

Awards and recognition

Amity University awarded Meera the Women Achievers’ Award by Amity University in 2018.[9] As part of the Culture of Peace Awards, instituted by the UN through UN General Assembly Resolution 52/13 (1997), the Women’s Federation for World Peace recognized Meera with the 2019 Fostering Peace Within the Individual award.[10] Meera was also featured in UN Women India's Mujhe Haq Hai campaign, which aimed to inspire women to defy norms by rising above challenges[11][12]

References

  1. 1 2 "Together we can!". Women's Network for Change. 2017-07-17. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  2. 1 2 "Widows: Survivors of Conflict" (PDF). September 2020.
  3. ↑ "Tragic Impact of COVID-19 Highlighted at Widows Day Virtual Event". Widows for Peace through Democracy. 2021-07-01. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  4. ↑ "#65 FiLiA meets: Meera Khanna". FiLiA. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  5. ↑ "India's forgotten widows: Govt must move beyond laws and actions plans, focus on social security and rehabilitation". Firstpost. 2017-10-24. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  6. ↑ Dipti Mayee Sahoo (January 2014). "An Analysis of Widowhood in India: A Global Perspective" (PDF).
  7. ↑ "Widows in Crisis & Conflict Panel – UN Human Rights Council 42 (09/20/2019)".
  8. ↑ "Fifty eminent Indians aged over 75 share their Mantras for Positive Ageing". www.thehansindia.com. 2021-10-02. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  9. ↑ "Amity honors eminent "Women Achievers" during the conclusion of week-long celebrations of International Women's Day". Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  10. ↑ "WFWP, International Participates in Annual UN Session on Women's Issues" (PDF).
  11. ↑ "UN Women inspire women to defy norms, rise above roadblocks through 'Mujhe haq hai' campaign". www.bestmediaifo.com. July 11, 2018. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  12. ↑ Garvita Sharma (Jun 29, 2018). "Mithali Raj and Sania Mirza speak about gender equality at UN India Women's anthem launch | Mumbai News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
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