About Malika Virdi

Malika is an avid mountain, people and nature person. She has worked for nearly 3 decades on various human rights and women rights related issues in many places across India (Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Uttaranchal). Presently she is the Sarpanch of the Sarmoli village Forest Council (Van Panchayat) and is a founder member of a womens' collective in Munsiari called Maati and is associated with several regional and national womens and human rights groups.

Malika Virdi has been nominated by a group called the 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 ( www.1000peacewomen.org ) as one of their nominees for this year’s (2005) Nobel Peace Prize. It’s a unique endeavor which gains significance in the fact that it aims to bring recognition to a thousand women across the world like Malika who have been working on significant issues related to women as well as towards the larger well being to living kind.

Malika has been working on these following areas in the past year:

• Strenthening democratic institutions (Eg. van panchayat and increased participation of people-centric women candidates for panchayati raj, writing about women elected representatives in local magazine, Uttara)
• Building networks, alliances and broad basing our understanding(Eg. Publishing about her deposition of state of Uttarakhand's forest, Part of 'Jal Jatra' organized by Uttarakhand Nadi Bachaoo Abhiyan, active with Uttarakhand Parivartan Abhiyan, Uttarakhand Mahila Manch, held a state lebel meet on primary education with Rachnatmak Shiksha Manch, Uttarakhand, 6 week Landscape and Lifeskills course, hosted interns for educational excursions for students from international universities)
• Women's Issues (Eg. Preventing violence against women, Liquor Prohibition campaign as social boycott leading to reduced drunkenness and violence, honoring 5 women as 'Munsiari ki Chingari'(Sparks of Munsiari) as part of International Women's Day)
• Livelihood Issues and Food Security (Eg. Strenthening the solarized food economy, market small surplus of food and spices locally, completed year long study on 'The Dependence of subsistence farming on the forests for nutrient recycling', wool work, Community Based Nature Tourism Enterprise, celebrated World Tourism Day, getting computers for Maati from a foundation for computer literacy and information access)
• Ecological Security issues (Eg. Disseminating information on public hearing process to discuss the legal and policy implications for the community and the ecology of the Gori valley about the several hydro power projects planned in the valley, organizing second Mesur Forest Fair, Sarmoli Jainti Van Panchayat work, working with the State Department on tourism initiative and conservation of the montane bamboo, challenging Forest Department as it encroches on more community ownership of the van panchayat so that the community manages the forest to meet the subsistence needs of the community as opposed to being exploited by the market).