Trupti Desai Biography 
Trupti Desai is a social activist and feminist who fights for gender equality. She is the founder of the Bhumata Brigade, a Pune-based social activist organization. She hogged in limelight and remained in a lot of controversies too, for her campaigns to let women enter in some of the major temples and mosques in India such as Shani Shingnapur Temple, the Haji Ali Dargah, the Mahalakshmi Temple and the Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple, and the most recent Sabarimala, which invited wide protests from believers who prefer to follow centuries-old traditions and customs. In 2011, she also participated in the anti-corruption movement.
Desai was born in Nipani of south-Indian state Karnataka. Currently she is based in Pune, where she is fully active in her social life. Desai has her roots in Kolhapur, and at the age of eight, she moved along with her family to Pune. She claims to have a spiritual background and is an ardent follower of Gagangiriji Maharaj of Kolhapur. Though she pursued home science in Shrimati Nathibai Damodar Thackersee College, she discontinued her studies due to family problems. But she turned an activist and was made the president of an organization known as Krantiveer Jhopdi Vikas sangh, marking a new beginning. But she was involved with social activists since she was studying in class 10.
While working with Krantiveer Jhopdi Vikas Sangh she used to work for people living in slum areas. In 2007, she came in to the limelight when she protested against Ajit Cooperative Bank for a fraud case of 50 crore, following which she started Bhumata Brigade on September 27, 2010. Apart from fighting for women rights, her organization had also extended support to Anna Hazare’s Janlokpal movement and Baba Ramdev’s protest against black money. She was the woman behind the wave of protests that Shani Shingapur temple which bars entry of women, and many more temples belonging to this category.
Published: November 18, 2018
Updated: November 18, 2018
