Gaura Devi as Part of International Women’s Day Celebrations | 05 Mar 2020

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is celebrating Women's Week from 1^st March to 8^th March 2020.
International Women's Day is observed on 8^th March every year.
MHRD remembered the women of history who have made significant contributions in the past and planted a sapling in memory of Gaura Devi, a Chipko Activist.

The Chipko movement was a non-violent agitation in 1973.
It is best remembered for the collective mobilisation of women for the cause of preserving forests, which also brought about a change in attitude regarding their own status in society.

The movement was led by Gaura Devi, who saved their communal forest from clear felling, beginning a decade of Chipko direct actions by women throughout the Uttarakhand region.
Gaura Devi led the first all-women action to save their community forest and mobilised the women of this region to protect their natural heritage.
During the activist phase of Chipko in the1970s, the courage and vigilance of Uttarakhandi women saved many forests and earned them a hallowed place in the history of the global environmental movement.
From this action, Chipko was to emerge as a peasant movement in defence of traditional forest rights, continuing a century-long tradition of resistance to state encroachment.