Kalawati Devi Rawat is known as the woman who brought electricity to her remote village in the hills of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.
Not only that, she has taken on the timber mafia in the nearby forests and also campaigned against alcoholism among the men in her village
“We faced stiff resistance from the society as well as the administration. They wanted women to stay indoors and look after household chores. Even my husband opposed me. He asked me one day as to why I was doing all this. I tried to convince him that whatever we were doing was for the benefit of our own people, but he was not convinced. We had reached a point when we decided to even part ways,” she says.
For a woman who’s had no formal education, Mrs Rawat has become a role model for many women in her village and over the years, she has also won respect from men.
