Sudha Bharadwaj

Sudha Bharadwaj is a respected trade unionist and human rights lawyer who has worked for over three decades for the rights of the poor in Chhattisgarh.

on Jan 24, 2024

Sudha Bharadwaj is a respected trade unionist and human rights lawyer who has worked for over three decades for the rights of the poor in Chhattisgarh. Born in Boston to academics, she gave up her American passport to become an Indian citizen. After a five-year Master of Science degree in Mathematics from IIT Kanpur, she went on to work in Chhattisgarh as a trade unionist. At thirty-nine, Bharadwaj also qualified as a lawyer.

In 2018, she was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on the charge of inciting violence in Bhima Koregaon village in Maharashtra. Arrested in August 2018 while working as a visiting professor at the National Law University in Delhi, she was first put under house arrest, then taken to Pune and kept in police custody. She spent over three years in prison, first in Yerawada Jail, Pune, followed by Byculla Jail, Mumbai, before being released on bail in December 2021.

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