Taraben Premchand

Taraben Maneklal Premchand was an Indian social worker, suffragist and Indian independence movement activist. She was a member of the All India Women's Conference, and was a member of a committee that authored a notable report on universal suffrage in India. She was married to industrialist Maneklal Premchand. She was also a member of the All India Women's Conference, and in 1931, was appointed to a committee constituted by the Conference to prepare a report on universal franchise in India. She prepared this report with Hansa Mehta, Margaret Cousins, Faiz Tyabji, Hilla Rustomji Fardoonji, Shareefa Hamid Ali, Malini Sukhtankar and Lakshmibai Rajwade, and submitted it to the Second Round Table Conference, calling for universal franchise and opposing separate electorates on the basis of gender or religion.

Premchand was also closely involved with the work of the Shraddhanand Ashram, a Hindu religious institution that helped provide care for orphaned and destitute children. She was the president of the Jain Mahila Parishad, an organisation of women belonging to the Jain religion, and was instrumental in preparing a constitution for the organisation based on principles of equality. In 1938, she publicly campaigned for the closure of slaughter houses for cattle in Uttar Pradesh, on religious grounds, in accordance with views on cow slaughter in India.