Jaya Arunachalam

Jaya Arunachalam was born on 8th February in 1935 in Tamil Nadu. She is a social activist who helped many girls from the weaker sections to develop themselves towards becoming financially independent. Dr. Jaya Arunachalam helped quite 600,000 girls to come out of extreme poverty and helped them become powerful and assured leaders of their households and community. Dr. Jaya Arunachalam was conferred the Padma Shri by the govt of India in 1987.  She was the founder of Working Women's Forum, a non-governmental organization, operating for the welfare of the girls.

Jaya Arunachalam served as the vice-chairman of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee and a member of the All India Congress Committee, besides several committees associated with women's welfare and development across India. She was a recipient of various awards like the International Leadership Award for Economic Development from Vital Voices, the International Activist Award (2003) from the Gliestman Foundation, California, and the Rashtriya Ekta Award from the National Awareness Forum, India, The Stree Shakti Puraskar in 2002. In 1978, Arunachalam founded the Working Women's Forum, which aims to unite women working in the informal sectors, particularly small-scale traders and sellers. By doing so, the WWF can spot and address girls' problems in those professions. She also founded the ICNW, Indian Cooperative Network For Women. The ICNW has provided aid to over 7,00,000 girls.

Dr. Arunachalam was jointly a member of the Inter-ministerial Conference on girls and youngsters in Philippines in 1994. She died on June 29, 2019 in Chennai, due to some age-related illness.