Medha Patkar

Medha Patkar
Medha Patkar in 2002
Born	1 December 1954 (1954-12-01) (age 56)
Organization	National Alliance of People's Movements(NAPM)
Political movement	Narmada Bachao Andolan

Medha Patkar (Marathi: मेधा पाटकर, born 1 December 1954) is an Indian social activist. She is known for her role in Narmada Bachao Andolan. She has also filed a public interest petition in the Bombay high court against Lavasa along with other members of National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), including Anna Hazare.

Personal life

Medha Patkar was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra to Indu and Vasant Khanolkar, a trade union leader and freedom fighter.^[1] She was raised by politically and socially active parents. Her father actively fought in the Indian Independence Movement^{[citation needed]}. Her mother was a member of Swadar, an organization setup to help and assist women suffering difficult circumstances arising out of financial, educational, and health related problems. Her parents' activism played a role in shaping her philosophical views.She was often known for her extreme views on growth of country and liberalization.^[2]

She got married to Mr. Patkar but got divorced.

She did her M.A. in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Author Jacques Leslie devoted a third of his book, Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005), to a portrait of Patkar as she planned to drown herself in rising reservoir waters behind the Sardar Sarovar Dam, whose construction she fought for two decades.

Awards and honors

Medha Patkar is one of the recipients of Right Livelihood Award for the year 1991. She received the 1999 M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award from Vigil India Movement. She has also received numerous other awards, including the Deena Nath Mangeshkar Award, Mahatma Phule Award, Goldman Environment Prize, Green Ribbon Award for Best International Political Campaigner by BBC, and the Human Rights Defender's Award from Amnesty International. S

Criticism

Patkar's refusal to participate in protest against a proposed Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project, in her home region of Konkan, has made local activists there unhappy and sad. One Konkan activist accused her of highlighting issues to "further her own purpose", and then abandoning them.^[3]

Though she is past employee of Tata Empire, Patkar also played a pivotal role in driving out the Tata Nano plant from Singur, West Bengal, ostensibly due to insufficient benefits to locals and use of fertile land for industry. However, the locals later appealed to Tata Motors to set up the plant at Singur accepting that they were misled.^[3] At the height of the agitation Ratan Tata had made a caustic remark questioning the source of funds of the agitators.^[3] Raipur, Jan 8 : Two days after dozens of tribal people threw eggs and tomatoes at social activist Medha Patkar and several of her associates in Maoist violence-hit Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh, she Friday alleged it was a "state government-sponsored protest". "It was all a government-sponsored protest in Dantewada in police presence. Those who threw eggs and tomatoes were brought from a relief camp by the government," Patkar told a press conference here »

References

1. ^ Sanger, Vasundhara. "A mother speaks: I worry for her but I know Medha is right". The Times Of India. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1495320,prtpage-1.cms. 
2. ^ "Medha Patkar: Biography" (PDF). Women in World History. http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-Patkar.pdf. Retrieved 2008-02-10. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} [1]. http://www.sunday-guardian.com/a/1671. Retrieved 2010-12-29. 

She & Sunithi SR are opposing environment friendly Project Lavasa, Cause of just fake understanding created in front of Environment Ministery.

External links

• Friends of the river Narmada website
• Right Livelihood Award website
• Articles written by Medha Patkar
• Speech by Medha Patkar at the 2nd World Water Forum in The Hague, March 2000
• Interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, March 2009 (video, audio, and print transcript)

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Name	Patkar, Medha
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Date of birth	December 1, 1954
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