Jaya Arunachalam

Jaya Arunachalam was an Indian social worker and the founder of Working Women's Forum, a non-governmental organization based in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, working for the welfare of marginalized women. Starting in 1978, she channeled her activities under the aegis of the forum for organizing poor working women and provided them with seed capital to start their small business or to develop their existing business. in Tamil Nadu in a Brahmin family and has a master's degree in economics and geography. She was a member of the governing council of the Society for International Development, Rome, and was recognized as the first South Asian woman to join the council.

Arunachalam also served as the vice president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee and a member of the All India Congress Committee, along with several committees related to women's welfare and development across India.

Working Women's Forum (WWF) In 1978, Arunachalam founded the Working Women's Forum, an organization that aims to organize and unite women working in the informal sector, especially small-scale traders and sellers. By doing so, the WWF is able to identify and address the problems faced by women in unorganized professions, with a view to make policy decisions and empower these women through the provision of facilities such as training, credit, material inputs, etc. In line with any other worker union, the WWF allows women to collectively demand better working conditions, social and political rights. This was established as an attempt to create an informal banking structure for women working in an informal setting. It works in sync with the Working Women's Forum, to provide loans and financial assistance to poor women.

The ICNW in its underlying principles holds that intersectionality is extremely important to understand while understanding poverty and oppression among women. According to its website, "Five interwoven threads of oppression can be discerned as class exploitation, caste inferiority, male dominance, isolation in a closed world and physical weakness".

Awards She is a recipient of many awards such as Global Leadership Award for Economic Development from Vital Voices, International Activist Award (2003) from the Gliestman Foundation, California, and the Rashtriya Ekta Award from the National Awareness Forum, India.

Personal life Arunachalam was born on 8 February 1935 in Tamil Nadu, India, to a Brahmin family.

Her daughter, Nandini Azad, is now the president of the ICNW and has taken over all operations of the WWF from her.

Arunachalam died on June 29, 2019, after an illness that lasted for two weeks. She spent her last days in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.