A choice made at sixteen
Radha Bahin Bhatt’s journey starts with education for girls in the hills and goes on to forests, water, the fight against liquor, and village self-rule. According to the official 2025 Padma citation, she was born on 16 October 1933 in a remote part of Uttarakhand.
As a teenager she decided to work for women and girls, and at 16 she joined Sarla Behn’s Lakshmi Ashram in Kausani.
Village by village
Between 1961 and 1963 she tried out Gandhian, village-based social work in the Bougad area of Pithoragarh. She started small circles for teenagers, a “one hour school” for girls, and programmes to help children grow in confidence.
After she took charge of Lakshmi Ashram in 1966, she organised women in Almora and nearby districts against the liquor problem. The government citation says the campaign was effective enough that several liquor shops in the area closed.
Forests, quarries and rivers
In 1975 she joined the Chipko movement. She campaigned against blasting and digging at soapstone quarries, worked to save forests and village grazing land, and expanded tree-planting programmes.
Her Padma citation records more than 1.6 lakh trees planted, and padyatras covering 79,000 km over her life, walked with women and girls in different campaigns. In 2008 she started the Nadi Bachao Andolan with local women.
One struggle, two halves
Her life makes one point clear: in the hills, women’s empowerment and protecting the environment are not separate subjects. They are often two halves of the same struggle.
Sources
- Padma Awards 2025: official citation
- Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation: award profile
- Lakshmi Ashram: background
- padmaawards.gov.in/Document/pdf/CitationsForTickets/2025/2025105.pdf
- jamnalalbajajfoundation.org/awards/archives/1991/women-and-child-welfare/radha-bhatt
- lakshmiashram.dk/en/om-ashrammen/