Indian social worker Reema Nanavaty gets Hillary Rodham Clinton Award

Washington: Indian social worker Reema Nanavaty was on Thursday honoured with the Hillary Rodham Clinton Award that recognises leaders working for peace and security.

Nanavaty, the Director of Self-Employed Women's Association of India, was conferred the award by Clinton, former US secretary of state, at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.

Under Nanavaty's leadership, SEWA has grown to become the single largest union of informal sector workers in India.


She focuses on women's economic empowerment by building women-owned enterprises and women-led supply chains in energy, agribusiness, food processing, waste recycling, and textiles.

Nanavaty led critical efforts to rebuild lives and livelihoods of earthquake-affected rural women and rehabilitation programs in crisis-torn Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

She also initiated SEWA's food security program that covers one million households and spearheads the 'Hariyali' Green Energy and Livelihoods Initiative to provide women access to renewable energy.

In 2013, the Government of India honoured Nanavaty with the fourth highest civilian award, Padma Shri.

The other recipients of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Award for 2026 are fashion designer and Tory Burch Foundation founder Tory Burch; and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and former chief adviser to Bangladesh's government.

Among the past awardees are Venezuelan Political Prisoners, Student Protest leaders of Bangladesh, former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, former British foreign secretary William Hague, among others.

The Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards are bestowed by Secretary Clinton and Georgetown University's Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) for exceptional leadership in promoting women's rights and creating a more peaceful and secure world for all.