Bela Bhatia

Bela Bhatia lives in Bastar, a predominantly tribal area of south Chhattisgarh, and works there as an independent human rights lawyer, researcher and writer. After completing her post-graduation in social work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and securing a law degree from the University of Gujarat, Bela also pursued a doctorate in social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge. She then began her work life as a full-time activist organizing labourers and marginal farmers in rural Gujarat. The people there, and in other parts of rural India where her concerns took her later, have been—she believes—her best teachers.

Bela spent two years doing peace and human rights work in Iraq and Palestine. She is the co-author (with Miriam Shaheen and Mary Kawar) of Unheard Voices: Iraqi Women on War and Sanctions and the co-editor (with Jean Drèze and Kathy Kelly) of War and Peace in the Gulf: Testimonies of the Gulf Peace Team. Bela loves nature, books, jazz and dogs.