A tribute was organized for the legendary co-operator Jaya Arunachalam at the M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai recently, in which Swamninathan himself paid glowing tributes to the departed soul and asked her daughter to carry forward her rich legacy.
Dr Nandini Azad, her daughter and an accomplished co-operator herself presented the talk entitled “The Iconic Flag Bearer of the Last Mass Movements of Women: Dr. Jaya Arunachalam the Crusader”.
Remembering Jaya Arunachalam Dr. M.S.Swaminathan said she was the first woman to join the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) as a trustee. “I know her and about her achievements since 1971; she was a performer”, he said.
Swaminathan recalled how he had requested her (Jaya Arunachalam) to develop and empower the women of the North East in the Indian Council for Agricultural Research which she did very well. Thanking Nandini Azad for presenting the Talk, Swaminathan urged her to enhance Jaya’s glory and strengthen the movement.
In her presentation Dr Azad said provided glimpses into Jaya Arunachalam’s early years, political influences, career stages and achievements. She said her mother Jaya Arunachalam was born in a modest Brahmin family of 8 siblings and she reached such a great height that U.S. Secretary of State Madam Hillary Clinton (2011) visited 
her to see the amazing empowerment of poor women entrepreneurs and leaders. World leaders including Queen Juliana of Netherlands, Prime Ministers and Presidents admired her unique movement, Nandini said.
Remembering an incident from the past, Nandini said when Amma organized 100 inter-caste weddings in 1978 even the then CM M.G. Ramachandran and the then President of India Shri. R. Venkataraman could not stop admiring her. The C.M said “I came to participate in this unique event and see the lady who draws crowds”.
Dr.Nandini Azad mentioned about her connection with Shri Jaiprakash Narayan. In 1988 when the CM Jayalalitha was humiliated in the legislature Dr. Arunachalam took out the only delegation of 20,000 of the Working Women’s Forum to the Governor as ‘a woman faced severe indignity’.
When the Cooperative Registrar of the time in the Central Government could not help in the registering of Multistate Cooperative for women in 1980’s, Jaya Arunachalam once again took 1000’s of women workers to the Governor with a petition and was successful in the effort for registering the Indian Cooperative Network for Women.
“It was she who formed the first cooperative in 1981 of women, for women WWF in South India which spread into three states with lakhs of women members. She was made of steel and became the iconic beacon light for millions of women”, recalled her daughter.
