Anita Reddy
| Anita Reddy | |
|---|---|
| Born | Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Occupation | Social worker |
| Children | Pooja Reddy Nakamura, Siddharth Reddy, Raam Reddy |
| Parent(s) | Dwaraknath Reddy Ranjini Reddy |
| Awards |
Padma Shri Mahila Sadhaki Award Jean Harris Award Woman Achiever Award Namma Bengaluru Award PRSI Award Kempegowda Award Lifetime Achievement Award -TANA |
| Website | Official web site |
Anita Reddy is an Indian social worker from Karnataka and the founder of Association for Voluntary Action and Services (AVAS), known for her services for the rehabilitation and upliftment of the slum dwellers in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. She is the managing trustee of DWARAKA and DRIK foundations, working for children's education and women's livelihoods. The Government of India honored Anita Reddy in 2011, with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri.
I had to face the land mafia and persons with vested interests. Once, I was even chased by a mob of around 300 people. I had to learn to conduct meetings with slum dwellers in graveyards, says Anita Reddy, about her early experiences in slums of Bengaluru.
Anita Reddy was born in Chennai, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu in a wealthy family to Ranjini Reddy and Dwaraknath Reddy, an industrialist and philanthropist. Her schooling was at the Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh and college in WCC, after which she went to California, USA. Later she got married to her childhood friend, Pratap Reddy, the son of the first Chief Minister of Karnataka, K. Chengalaraya Reddy.
Her social career started in late seventies when she started working with slum dwelling people. Soon, she founded the Association for Voluntary Action and Services (AVAS) in 1980. Her first initiative was to contribute to the living conditions in the slums by remodeling the housing facilities. Reddy's activities gathered momentum when her father founded the Dwarakanath Reddy Ramanarpanam Trust (DRRT) in 1996, bestowed his wealth to the trust and asked Anita Reddy to manage it. With added resources, Reddy worked for the empowerment of the poor people and establishment of better facilities in the slums.
Another achievement credited to Reddy is the formation of the Development of Weavers and Rural Artisans in Kalamkari Art (DWARAKA), a society for the artisans. The society aims to revive the dying art form of Kalamkari and provide the artisans a base for storing and marketing their products. The next project Reddy plans for is the setting up of a leadership development institute, under the Dwarakanath Reddy Institutes for Knowledge (DRIK), for which she has set up a 40-acre piece of land at Chikballapur called the DRIK VIVEKA campus. The institute promotes theatre, music, sports, art and craft and Gandhian studies, for the poor under the cultural empowerment network called DRIK-Jeevanotsava.
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