Prema Gopalan


Prema Gopalan is an Indian social activist. She has founded and has been Executive Director of Swayam Shikshan Prayog for over 20 years, supported poor rural women in building bridges with local government to facilitate democratic processes that are inclusive of women. She is also well known for the disaster relief work after her rehabilitation work in Maharashtra.

Early life

Prema Gopalan was born in Pune, India. She has a master's degree in social work, and a pre-doctoral study on women in the informal sector.

Career

Prema Gopalan is a co-founder with Sheela Patel of SPARC in 1984.
She started Swayam Shikshan Prayog in 1993. Her work aims to put rural poor women at the center of decentralized, democratic, basic-service management.
The Swayam Shikshan Prayog functioned as a self-education network within SPARC until it redesigned and implemented a widespread community participation strategy across 1200 villages in earthquake hit districts of Latur and Osmanabad.
Swayam Shikshan Prayog SSP is a learning and development organization working across six States in India with a goal to promote women's entrepreneurship and leadership in development and governance. Over the last decade, SSP and its ventures have created a robust eco-system that has steered over 145,000 women to set up last-mile social ventures in clean energy, water, sanitation, health, agriculture and nutrition. In a career spanning over two decades, Prema has constantly innovated and strategized to bring women from poor communities from the margin to the mainstream. Her experience in seeding a market based approach, has gained wide recognition, both with the Government and global organizations.

Personal life

Prema Gopalan is married, her husband also works in the citizen sector. She lives in Pune.

Awards