Our fall series celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights kicked off on Gandhi’s birthday with an interview of anti-trafficking advocate Ruchira Gupta hosted by Leader Dr. Joe Chuman.
Human trafficking of girls in South Asia and elsewhere is a persistent product of poverty and the devaluing of women and girls. Combatting it means battling on both fronts. Join us on Gandhi’s birthday for an interview with Emmy Award-winning journalist, novelist, and anti-trafficking NGO founder Ruchira Gupta.
About Ruchira
Ruchira Gupta is an Emmy winning journalist and founder of the anti sex trafficking NGO Apne Aap, that empowers women and girls to exit systems of prostitution. I Kick and I Fly is her debut fiction novel.
She has been awarded the French Ordre National du Mérite, the Clinton Global Citizen Award, and the UN NGO CSW Woman of Distinction, among other honors, for her contribution to the establishment of the UN Trafficking Fund for Survivors, the passage of the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act and her grassroots activism with Apne Aap. She also holds a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Smith College. She has co-written a book with Gloria Steinem, “As if Women Matter” and edited two anthologies, “River of Flesh” and “Renu’s letters to Birju Babu”.
Ruchira has worked for the United Nations in Nepal, Thailand, Kosovo, Iran, and the USA. She occasionally teaches at the New York University’s Center for Global Affairs as a visiting faculty.
Ruchira divides her time between New York and Forbesganj, her childhood home in the foothills of the Himalayas, where she furthers the work of Apne Aap and paints her mother’s garden. Visit her online at ruchiragupta.com.
