Runa Banerjee

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Runa Banerjee, born in 1950 in Lucknow, India, is a social worker who co-founded SEWA Lucknow, a group that supports poor working women in Uttar Pradesh. She serves as the General Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of SEWA Lucknow. In 2005, she was among the PeaceWomen Across the Globe nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2007 she was awarded India’s Padma Shri.

Banerjee began her social work by organizing a health camp in 1979 with doctors including Devika Nag. A UNICEF report that year inspired her to focus on chikankari, a traditional Lucknow embroidery, whose artisans were exploited by middlemen. With Sehba Hussain, she started a small primary school for the artisans’ children with a nominal fee of ₹1; this evolved into the SEWA Montessori School.

In 1984 she launched Earn While You Learn, the Lucknow chapter of SEWA, starting with 31 members. The organization created a platform for chikankari artisans to teach the craft while working, and its membership grew to about 7,500, with roughly 8,000 women trained over time. This work helped revive the declining chikankari craft. SEWA Lucknow has organized numerous exhibitions in India and abroad, including in Delhi, Washington, Milan, Melbourne, and Barcelona. The group is part of the Ambedkar Hastashilp Vikas Yojana (AHVY) under India's Ministry of Textiles.

Banerjee and Hussain also assisted victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots, helping women to take up chikankari as a livelihood and providing training.