Interview with Lata Pratibha Madhukar

Abstract

Lata Pratibha Madhukar was born and brought up in Nagpur and has a post graduate degree in Marathi. It was during the emergency period from 1975 onwards that Lata started feeling the need to be an activist. She became an active participant in various campaigns and discussions from 1978 onwards. She worked as a lecturer and later as an anchorperson for the radio in Wardha, Maharashtra. After her marriage she moved to Mumbai and worked as a research assistant in the Research Centre for Women’s Studies, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai. Later she joined the Women’s Centre, (Nari Kendra) Mumbai, and was with the Centre for seven years during which time she was active in the women’s rights movement. In 1991 Lata joined the Narmada Bachao Andolan, an environmental movement that questioned the basic tenets of development planning, as a co-coordinator. For the next nine years, she threw herself into this struggle, organizing protests, and mobilizing support and she also engaged herself in advocacy and research related to the movement. She went on to become the national convenor for the National Alliance of People’s Movements. Lata is also a writer and a poet and she lives in Mumbai.