Veteran Social Activist Pushpa Bhave Passes Away

Mumbai: Veteran social activist Prof. Pushpa Bhave, who was also known as the Iron Lady of Mumbai, passed away in the late night on Friday at the age of 81.

For the past few months, Bhave was not physically doing well.

She was known for her social works and teachings.

Bhave had been the strident middle-class activist voice of Mumbai. She also believed that the original backbone of the city was its middle class society.

She was born and brought up in Dadar and had completed her MA in Marathi and Sanskrit from Elphinstone College, Mumbai.

She retired as head of the Marathi department in Ramnarain Ruia College in 1999. Even after her retirement, the renowned public intellectual used to travel across Maharashtra delivering lectures. People fondly called her ‘Pushpa Tai.’

She also player a vital role during the Emergency period in 1975 by offering her home as shelter to many underground political workers like Mrinal Gore and Pannala Surana.

Bhave through decades of advocacy, writings and social and political activism, had contributed majorly to the development of grassroots democracy in the country.