Financials
DR. ARCHANA JOSHI – President
Archana Joshi is the Ex. Director of Deepak Foundation and heads the Corporate Social Responsibility of Deepak Group of Companies ( Deepak Nitritie Limited and Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemicals Corporation Limited). Her research papers are published in several journals and various conference proceedings at national and international level. She has past 18 years of experience in international consultancy research organization and has vast experience in monitoring and evaluation of government health and other development programs pertaining to social sector. She was a consultant in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA and Population Council, New Delhi, for projects related to Reproductive Health
MR. HARINESH PANDYA – Vice President
MS. NUPUR SINHA – Member
MR. ATUL PANDYA – Member
Atul Pandya, former programme director of Rural Programmes Group at city-based Centre for Environment Education (CEE), and present director of the trust at Sabarmati Ashram. Atul Pandya was raised in a Gandhian household. He studied at Lokbharti Gramvidyapith, an educational institute built on Gandhian values in Sanosara village near Bhavnagar, and was engaged as academic director of its rural institutes of higher education. He is Bacholor of Arts from Saurashtra University and Masters of Social Work from Gujarat Vidhyapith.
He has worked with VIKSAT from 1985-87. He was also part of several outreach and training programmes besides rural programmes at CEE from 1988-2014. After that he joined his alma mater Lokbharti.
MS. MANJULA PRADEEP – Member
Manjula Pradeep is an Indian human rights activist and a lawyer. She is the Director of WAYVE Foundation. Navsarjan Trust, one of the largest Dalit rights organizations in India, addressing the issues of caste discrimination and gender based discrimination. Manjula has completed her Master’s degree of Social Work at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 1990. Later she also completed her Bachelors of Law. It was at the university, where she started challenging the male-dominated arena of Dalit politics, and became involved in Dalit and feminist activism. After finishing her Masters degree in 1992, Manjula Pradeep joined the Navsarjan Trust at the age of 21 as their first female employee. In 2004, she was elected at the Executive Director at the organisation.
MR. APOORVA OZA – Member
Apoorva Oza, educated in India, the UK and the USA in mechanical engineering, rural management and NGO management. He is the Ex. CEO for the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (India). Furthermore, he is actively involved with various other NGOs and Government working groups including the state level working group on participatory irrigation Management, State level working group on Joint Forest Management, PRAVAH ( Net work of NGOs on Drinking Water Policy Issues ), CHARKHA ( Development Communication Network of NGOs ), SWATI and Gujarat Initiative for Right to Information. Apoorva Oza research interests include natural resource management, village institutions and NGO management.
DR. SHEWLI KUMAR – Member
Shewli Kumar is Chair person and Associate- School of Social Work – Professor Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Her research and practice interests lie in the areas of community mobilisation, women from the margins, experiences of exclusion, mobilisation and collectivisation, law and social policy analysis in the context of sexual harassment, women and work, livelihoods and development, childhoods and child rights. Some of the researches done are in the realm of women human rights defenders in conflict zones, maternity benefit, child marriage, women and livelihoods, gender audits and family counselling centers in India. She has recently published the book: “The Gendered Terrain of Maintenance for Women: Enmeshed Inequalities in Culture and Law”. She has presented several papers at national and international conferences including at the United Nations Sub Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights NGO Consultations, Geneva and the 4thWorld Conference on Women’s Studies 2018, Colombo.
MS. POONAM KATHURIA – Executive Secretary
Poonam Kathuria is founder and director of Society for Women’s Action and Training Initiatives – SWATI – an organisation working at the state and national levels in India on issues related to violence against women and adolescents, their health, and women’s access and right to land and governance.
Poonam has been active over 20 years in an influential role to end gender-based violence and to promote women’s empowerment and leadership. Her skills range from project design and management to situation analysis, action research and capacity development. Under her leadership SWATI has extended its geographic and programme coverage and is known for its analytical and innovative approaches to complex issues.
Poonam was awarded the Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor ship, 2014, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, and taught a special course at the University from June to September that year.
Her latest work is a study on shelter homes in Gujarat. She has co-edited, as well as written a chapter in, an edited collection titled Indian Feminisms – Individual and Collective Journeys