Runa Banerjee

In 1950, Runa Banerjee was born into a Hindu family in Lucknow, the state capital of India's Uttar Pradesh, in the Model House neighborhood. She is said to have been concerned with educating the local women and children during her formative years and was active in social activities. She invited well-known local doctors like Devika Nag to participate in a health camp she hosted for the underprivileged in 1979. She decided to concentrate on the artisans of Chikankari, a traditional kind of needlework that originated in Lucknow, after reading a UNICEF study published that year. The research showed that the artisans were living in poverty and were being taken advantage of by intermediaries.

For a small charge of one rupee, Banerjee and her friend Sehba Hussain established a primary school for the children of the artisans; this school, which at first only had one teacher, would later become SEWA Montessori School. She founded the Earn While You Learn mission in 1984 with 31 members, and the Lucknow branch of the Self-Employed Women's Association also registered the organization that same year (SEWA). Over the years, the association’s membership, which gave chikankari artists a forum to teach their trade while earning a living, increased to over 7500. The organization is said to have taught 8000 women, and it is believed that their efforts helped to revive the once-declining Chikankari skill.

The first such exhibition was held at the Islamic Centre in New Delhi. It was followed by the Silk Road Campaign in Washington, the Macef International Home Show of 2003 in Milan, the Brides of the Orient Show in Melbourne, and other exhibitions in London and Barcelona under the auspices of the organization organizations a part of the Ambedkar Hastashilp Vikas Yojana (AHVY) of the Indian government's Ministry of Textiles. There have been reports of Banerjee's efforts in helping the riot victims in Gujarat in 2002 get back on their feet. After the riots, she and Hussain traveled around Gujarat, encouraging the abused women to pursue Chikankari as a profession and giving them the necessary training. She was nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize for these efforts, along with her coworkers from the PeaceWomen Across the Globe. In 2007, the Indian government gave her the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian accolade, for two years.