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Zehra Ali Yavar Jung
Born 1 January 1920 · verify
Died 11 December 1976
Founded the Society For Clean Cities to improve Hyderabad's urban sanitation and welfare.
🔔 Add birthday reminderNawab Ali Yavar Jung Bahadur was an Indian diplomat. He served as Indian Ambassador in Argentina, Egypt, Yugoslavia and Greece, France, and the United States.
✨ A detail that surprised us
Zehra Ali Yavar Jung’s Society For Clean Cities was among the first NGOs to incorporate vocational training alongside educational and health services for slum children in Mumbai during the 1970s.
1. In 1973, Zehra Ali Yavar Jung received the Padma Bhushan for her concrete work in social reform, focusing on Mumbai's slum dwellers through the Society For Clean Cities (SCC).
2. 🌆 She founded the National Society for Clean Cities, which runs a children's home in Bandra providing education, nutrition, and medical care to financially disadvantaged children, a project ongoing since its inception in the post-independence era.
3. 🏥 The Bandra children's home under her leadership was among the earliest NGOs in Mumbai to integrate vocational and cultural welfare into slum rehabilitation programs during the 1970s.
4. Her marriage to Ali Yavar Jung, Maharashtra’s governor and diplomat, connected her social reform efforts with influential political circles, amplifying her outreach in Maharashtra throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
5. 🌍 The Society For Clean Cities distinguished itself by focusing on urban sanitation and welfare in Mumbai at a time when rapid urbanization was escalating slum populations but few NGOs addressed their specific living conditions.
6. ❓ How did Zehra Ali Yavar Jung's social initiatives influence India's broader urban policy on slum welfare during the turbulent decades following independence?
Awards & Honours
- 🏅Padma Bhushan
🔍 One thing most people don't know
In 1973, Zehra Ali Yavar Jung was awarded the Padma Bhushan specifically for her work with Mumbai’s slum dwellers through the Society For Clean Cities, marking a rare civilian honor for social work at that time.
🖼️ Through the Years
📅 The Journey
🗝️ Discoveries
🎥 Speeches & Recordings
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📖 Curated Sources
🌱 What changed because of them
Zehra Ali Yavar Jung’s founding of the Society For Clean Cities created a model of integrated slum welfare that combined sanitation, education, and vocational training, influencing subsequent urban social reform efforts in Mumbai. Her children’s home in Bandra became a prototype for NGO-run welfare homes addressing multidimensional poverty in urban India. Her work helped shape a practical approach within Maharashtra's social policies toward slum rehabilitation.
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