Anjali Gopalan

Anjali Gopalan
Gopalan, circa 2009
Born	(1957-09-01) 1 September 1957 (age 59) Chennai, India
Residence	New Delhi, India
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	LGBT rights activist, Executive Director of The Naz Foundation (India) Trust
Awards	Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur

Anjali Gopalan  pronunciation  (born 1 September 1957) is an Indian human rights and animal rights activist, founder and executive director of The Naz Foundation (India) Trust, an NGO dedicated to the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India mainly focused on women and children. Anjali began working on issues related to HIV/AIDS and marginalized communities in the United States. In 2012, Time placed Gopalan in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Anjali Gopalan was born in 1957 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Her father Group Captain Dr. KR Gopalan was an officer in the Indian Air Force and her Punjabi mother a homemaker. Anjali did her schooling in La Martiniere Lucknow. She studied in both India and the US, and her degree in political science from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, a postgraduate diploma in journalism, and a Masters in international development from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

“It is a reflection of what we are doing with our minorities. Be it in Kashmir, be it in the North East, be it rights for the sexual minority, animal rights, it is the same attitude. We are becoming more and more intolerant of the other.” All individuals, if you give them the space, will prove to be productive citizens. “But if you impose your sets of right and wrong and therefore they have no right to live, then what can you expect from people?”