Renana Jhabvala is the National Coordinator of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) of India, Chair of SEWA Bharat and co-founder and board chair of WIEGO. She las a long and distinguished career in organizing working women in India into trade unions and cooperatives, engaging on policy issues, and writing about the informal economy. Her publications on the informal economy in India include: Informal Economy Centrestage: New Structures of Employment, which she co-edited with Ratna M. Sudarshan and Jeemol Unni; and The Unorganised Sector: Work Security and Social Protection, which she co-edited with R.K.A. Subramanya. She recently served as the Chancellor of Gandhigram Rural Institute, a Deemed University in Tamil Nadu, India. Among other awards, she was awarded a Padma Shri from the Government of India in 1990 for her contributions in the field of social work.
