NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JUNE 19
Social worker Vidyaben Shah passed away at her residence in the national capital on Friday, a statement from her son Mihir Shah said.
She was 98. As a university student, she participated in the Quit India Movement, it said.
Shah had established India’s first-ever Bal Bhavan in Rajkot in the 1940s, which was to become a harbinger of the entire Bal Bhavan Movement in India. She was president of the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW), India’s single largest such institution, for 12 years from 1976 to 1979, and 1985 to 1994. She was chairman of the Central Social Welfare Board from 1985 to 1988.
She was the first non-official to become president of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) in the 1970s. She played a leading role in the establishment of one of Delhi’s most renowned schools, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and of the Triveni Kala Sangam, a premier institution for imparting training in dance, music, and painting.
She was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1992 and the Government of India’s National Award for outstanding services in the field of Child Welfare in 1986.
