Anshu Gupta is an Indian social worker known for his work on clothing as a basic human need. He is the founder of Goonj, a non-governmental organisation based in India that channels urban surplus material, particularly used clothing, towards rural development efforts.
| Name | Anshu Gupta |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Social worker |
| Known for | Founder of Goonj |
Gupta worked in the corporate sector before transitioning to full-time social work. His engagement with issues of poverty and material deprivation in rural India shaped the focus of his later activism, which centres on the often overlooked role of clothing in human dignity and disaster relief.
Gupta founded Goonj as an organisation that collects discarded urban material — clothes, household items and other usable goods — and redistributes them in rural and disaster-affected areas. A distinctive feature of the organisation's model is that material is generally provided in exchange for community-led development work, rather than as charity, with the aim of preserving the dignity of recipients and encouraging local participation.
Goonj has also worked on initiatives related to menstrual hygiene by producing low-cost cloth sanitary pads from recycled cloth, addressing a subject that had received limited public attention in many parts of rural India.
Gupta has been recognised internationally for his social work, including being named a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, often described as Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, for his contributions in placing clothing within the framework of basic human needs and development.
Gupta's work is notable for reframing used clothing as a development resource rather than as a form of alms, and for linking urban consumption with rural needs through a structured exchange model. His efforts have drawn attention to material poverty, disaster response and rural infrastructure carried out by communities themselves.