Memoir of a Canadian-Indian Women's Activist
A Canadian woman. An Indian life. Over fifty years of activism, solidarity, and belonging among the tribal and single women of Rajasthan and beyond.
Women's Activist • Scholar • Community Builder
Dr. Ginny Shrivastava earned a doctorate in Adult Education from the University of Toronto, researching leadership for rural women's development in India between 1977 and 1980. After marrying and following her Indian husband to Rajasthan in 1970, she made a life of service among the people she came to call her own.
She established Women's Development and Women's Empowerment Units in NGOs across India, and pioneered organizations of low-income Single Women — first in Rajasthan, then in other states. Her work has touched tribal communities and grassroots movements for over fifty years.
Honoured with a Stree Shakti Award by the President of India and a Canadian Governor General's Medallion for her work with women, she was among the 1000 PeaceWomen nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. Above all, she has earned the affection of the tribal and single women of India who became "her people."
Your People, My People recounts the life of a woman born and educated in Canada, married in Canada to an Indian citizen, who came to live and work in India in 1970. Settled in Udaipur, Rajasthan, she and her husband devoted their lives to the civil society sector.
Over more than fifty years, this memoir traces the issues, struggles, and victories of a life lived with the people — an intimate account of grassroots work alongside tribal communities and low-income Single Women whose strength and solidarity shaped every chapter.
From the Emergency to the New Economic Policy, the Forest Rights Act to Covid, the great turning points of modern India find their place in these stories of activism, quiet courage, and chosen belonging.
More than a personal memoir, it is a testament to ordinary people and to a Canadian woman who made "your people" her people — and never looked back.
Belonging is a choice we make.
Strength rises from the grassroots.
Your people can become mine.
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