Introducing

Priya Varadarajan

Priya Varadarajan is an activist and advocate for women’s rights. She has been running a not-for-profit called Durga for the last 10 years. The organisation works on a rights-based approach to build a strong community that acts against sexual harassment in public spaces, making the safety of women and children a collective responsibility. Priya also works at Azim Premji Philanthropy, leading on Gender Justice and Persons with Disabilities.

As a women’s rights activist, Priya is vocal about a number of women’s issues, especially domestic violence, equal rights and especially, to give women their due in whatever they are doing. She also throws light on the role women have played during the pandemic working from home, answering calls, attending meetings, and proving their worth apart from running the home full-time, caring for children, and looking after the family. She also wrote on how during the lockdown, The National Commission for Women recorded a 100 percent rise in calls on its helpline 181 with issues of domestic violence.

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100 Digital Influencers

YourStory's 100 Digital Influencers of 2020

“The largest force of health workers in rural India are the ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists), ANMs (Auxillary Nurse Midwives) and anganwadi workers. They are not just fighting the nutrition and health needs of women and children but also are front-ending the battle too. They are going door-to-door to record people’s travel history, check the temperature and are also involved in contact tracing! Between ASHAs and Anganwadi workers, we have about 2.4 million women doing the most important jobs in rural India on COVID-19 response (government data). These women are going about their work with rigour, not working from home as the rest of us are, putting theirs and their families live in danger and yet, remain unsung heroes in this fight against the deadly virus.”