Anasuya Sarabhai

Anasuya Sarabhai was a founder of the Women’s Labour Movement in India. She founded the India's oldest union of textile workers, in 1920 in Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association.


Anasuya Sarabhai was born in Ahmedabad on 11 November 1885 into the Sarabhai family, a religious family of pharmaceutical industrialists and business people. However, Anasuya lost both her parents when she was only nine years old and was married to her uncle at a tender age of 13. She divorced her husband and returned to her own family.

With the help of her brother, she went to England in 1912 to continue her studies. She returned back to India in 1913 and started working for betterment of women and the poor. She began by opening a school for poor students of all castes and toilets for women.

She decided to get involved in the labour movement after witnessing exhausted female mill workers returning home after a 36-hour shift. She helped organise textile workers in a 1914 strike in Ahmedabad. She was also involved in a month-long strike in 1918, where weavers were asking for a 50 per cent increase in wages and were being offered 20 per cent.


Anasuya was a mentor to Ela Bhatt, Founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA). Anasuya Sarabhai passed away 1972.

We Miss You Anasuya..! 

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