Ms. Meera Jyoti grew up in Kalimpong, and studied at St. Joseph’s Convent for girls. She married Mr. Padma Jyoti at the age of 19, and accompanied him to Boston during his Master’s program at MIT. After his graduation, they both came back and spent a majority of their adult life at the Parwanipur Himal Steel factory.

Calm, collected, and elegant, she shares a value passed down from her father-in-law “Philanthropy is at the heart of the family”. She herself has played an exemplary role changing the perception of women in her Uraya Samaaj community and the Kasa Guthi. As the community’s President,she is a voracious advocate for modernizing reforms for women and widows. She recognizes that women often bear the brunt of the impacts of urbanization and climate change when they are working at the grassroots level, and leads important discussions on the same through her leadership roles with two renown organizations: TEWA (an NGO to provide support to empower women economically) and ZONTA (a network of women who seek to raise awareness about issues that impact women). She serves as the District Treasurer for ZONTA in the regional forum which encompasses Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

Serving as on the standing committee on women within the World Fellowship of Buddhists, and a treasurer for the Dharmodaya Samiti in Lumbini, She seeks to establish a Jyoti Foundation to connect all the family’s philanthropic efforts . In addition to her non-profit work, she works very closely with the Spinal Injury Rehab Center, offering physiotherapy to injured adults, and provides training to traffic schools to help mitigate traffic related accidents.

A major highlight of her time engaging with the Himal Steel factory in Parwanipur is the Family day spent with the entire factory workers and their families. With over 1000 people attending each family day function, Ms. Jyoti fondly remembers bonding with staff and their families over quizzes, and community wide fairs. She worked very closely to build a library for the staff and their children, followed by setting up a daily health clinic for routine polio checkups, vaccinations and blood donation. She also contributed her time to improve the quality of education of the school established by her father-in-law, Mr. Maniharsha Jyoti the children of factory workers and the community. The school still serves over 800 students and gives her a sense of pride at being able to impart quality education to families in the village.

“We have examples of 4 generations from the same family working with Jyoti Group, in some way or another,” she shares with a smile- “and this is a testament to the good will we have earned from the people that we have worked with through the years”.