Participant Bios

Aalen C Issac

Aalen C. Issac is a student of English Literature at Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil College, Vashi. Intensely passionate about research and learning, he has published and presented a paper on the effects of Body Shaming on young women aged 18-25 years at the International Life Skills Conference held in Pune last year. He has also published a few other papers from a literary background. Originally from Kerala, he did his schooling in Navi Mumbai and his hobbies include reading, writing and playing basketball.

Amrita Vasudevan

Amrita Vasudevan is engaged in policy research on Internet-related public policy issues and inclusive e-governance. She is currently handling a regional research study on evaluating the effectiveness of existing legal-institutional response mechanisms to technology-mediated Violence Against Women in South Asia, focusing on two country-contexts: India and Bangladesh. She has previously worked with a Member of Parliament as part of the Legislative Assistance to a Member of Parliament Fellowship offered by PRS Legislative Research. She holds a Masters in Law from NALSAR University, Hyderabad, with a specialisation in intellectual property rights.

Anu Swaraj

Anu Swaraj is a second-semester student at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies pursuing BA LLB (Hons.), She completed her high schooling in Chinmaya Vidyalaya and did her higher secondary course in GVHSS Nadakkavu International in science stream and secured hundred percent marks in biology. She was awarded the best squad captain award. She was selected to be part of the workshop conducted by German UNESCO and her article had been selected to be a part of their publication. She wish to contribute to the best of her ability, to secure the society with the victory of justice

Asaf Ali Lone

Asaf Ali Lone is an independent researcher. He is currently a Consultant at the Housing Discrimination Project, an independent project based out of the Centre for Public Interest Law, Jindal Global Law School (Jindal Global University, Sonepat). He has done his B.A. (Hons.) in Arabic from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, M.A. in Society and Culture from IIT Gandhinagar, Gujarat and Urban Fellows Programme from IIHS Bangalore. His research interests are urban segregation, marginalities and resistances, men and masculinities, memory, violence and intersectionality.

Bishakha Datta

Bishakha Datta (@busydot) works on gender and sexuality in digital spaces, runs the non-profit Point of View in Mumbai, writes and films non-fiction, and is part of the wikipedia family. In all her work, Bishakha explores marginal, invisible, and silenced points of view – or those considered illegitimate. Bishakha’s documentary work includes In The Flesh and Taza Khabar. Anthologies she edited include Nine Degrees of Justice and And Who Will Make the Chapatis? Bishakha recently launched the online imprint, Deep Dives, which publishes long-form journalism on ‘the way we live now’. She is currently writing #Selling Sex, a book on the lives of sex workers in India. Bishakha was a former trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation and is currently on the boards of the non-profits ARROW, Dreamcatcher and Majlis.

Biraj Mehta Rathi

Dr. Biraj Mehta Rathi , assisstant professor, department of philosophy, Wilson College . I am currently pursuing post doctoral research, have received General Research Fellowship from Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi and Department of Philosophy, University of Mumbai. I was a faculty at Department of Philosophy, Sophia College for Women and visiting faculty at Departments of Philosophy and Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai. My areas of interest include Greek Philosophy, Socio Political Philosophy, Contemporary Western Philosophy, Moral Philosophy and Aesthetics. My research interests include European Philosophy, Political Theory, Film and Cultural Studies.  I regularly contribute to curriculum formation, have participated in several national and international conferences and published in prestigious journals. I have initiated a course on local culture and disability studies for undergraduate students of Wilson College. I have been a member of Modern Book Selection committee and Mumbai Research Centre at the Asiatic Society of Mumbai-  bmehta18@gmail.com

Dyuti

Dyuti completed her MA in Women’s Studies from Advanced Center for Women’s Studies, TISS, Mumbai in 2017 and already hold an undergraduate Honors degree in Sociology from Miranda House, University of Delhi. Shortly after that she worked in an NHRC funded project on the legal rights of the surrogates and the challenges they face working in Mumbai and Delhi at Council for Social Development, Delhi. She now works at Center for Health Research and Development, Society for Applied Studies. Her larger interest areas are gender, media, culture, space, digital activism, violence against girls and women etc. She has worked with organizations like Center for Advocacy and Research, GirlsCount, RAHI Foundation etc alongside her education in past five years on an array of issues like domestic violence in low resource areas in Delhi, women’s access to property, child sexual abuse etc.

Flavia Agnes

Flavia Agnes is a women’s rights lawyer. A pioneer of the women’s movement, she has worked consistently on issues of gender and law reforms. As co-founder of MAJLIS, a legal and cultural resource centre, her primary engagement has been to provide quality legal services to women and children.A prolific writer, she has provided incisive analysis of many social trends and legal reforms including domestic violence, minority law reforms, secularism and human rights. Significant among her many publications is her autobiographical book `My Story Our Story … Of Rebuilding Broken Liveswhich has been translated into several languages. She is one of the proponents of legal pluralism. Within the premise of ‘reforms from within’ she has played an important role in reforming the Christian Personal Laws as well as advancing the rights of Muslim women. Her more recent engagement has been with issues of democracy, secularism and identity politics. Her organisation, Majlis has worked consistently in countering the rising wave of Hindu fundamentalism in the country. After the communal carnage in Gujarat, India in 2002, she initiated a legal advocacy program for sexually violated women in relief camps and subsequently has brought out a publication titled, “Of Lofty Claims and Muffled Voices’.

Ingrid Brudvig

Ingrid coordinates the Women’s Rights Online country partner network and research initiatives in the World Wide Web Foundation. Prior to joining the Web Foundation in 2014, Ingrid coordinated a network of anthropologists across Africa conducting ethnographic research on ICTs, and co-edited a published book on “Mobilities, ICTs and Marginality in Africa: South Africa in Comparative Perspective”. Her work has also included extensive fieldwork, and monitoring and evaluation activities for initiatives in education, health, and social development across South Africa. Ingrid has a MA in Social Anthropology and is working towards her Ph.D. She is based in Cape Town.

J Devika

J Devika is a writer, teacher, translator, historian and social science researcher. She writes in English and Malayalam in research journals, and the press in Malayalam and English. She translates literature from Malayalam to English, and social science writings from English to Malayalam. She researches and teaches at Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Her political commentary on contemporary Kerala may be found on www.kafila.online

Juhi Sidharth

Juhi has engaged with the subject of gender and sexuality in her academic and professional life for the past ten years. Her doctoral research at the University of Cambridge, UK investigated the lived experiences of sexuality of young women living in the slums of Mumbai. She also holds an M Phil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Her broad research interests cover topics such as gender and education, sexuality and relationships education, inter-sectionality, modernity, identity and development. She has presented her works in several national and international conferences and academic fora.

Karuna Nundy

Karuna Nundy is an Advocate at the Supreme Court of India. She has won constitutional cases in the Supreme Court on online speech rights, including the striking down of Section 66A of the IT Act. She represents and  advises a variety of media and tech companies, and serves as an expert on Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression Committee. Ms. Nundy contributed to the laws on violence against women on 2013, which includes cyber stalking. Ms. Nundy has advised the governments of the Maldives and Bhutan, conducted trainings at the Senate of Pakistan and government officials from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Maldives. She was invited by the United Nations to advise on legal reform in 192 jurisdictions. Ms. Nundy has been honoured by the French Republic as a ‘Personnalite D’avenir’. She obtained a degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, her first law degree from the University of Cambridge, and a fellowship and  LLM from Columbia University. She is qualified to practise law in India and New York

Kshitee Mane
Kshitee Mane is part of the social media team at Sayfty. Currently a student at H.R. College of Commerce and Economics, Kshitee is also a performing artist. She believes in the power of education and through Sayfty gets to use it as a tool to empower women and girls. Her aim is to advocate for equal rights for women and girls, specially through arts and the digital media.
Kunal Pradeep Parmar

Based out of Mumbai, Kunal Pradeep Parmar hold a degree in Mass Media with Advertising as a specialization from the University of Mumbai. He currently works as a Visualizer & Designer for Sayfty. Being interested in social issues, he creates hard hitting visualized content. Having decent knowledge about the on – goings in the industry, he wishes to be a companion for Sayfty in their long run and enhance the community and the initiative thereby.

Megha Biji Joseph

Megha Biji Joseph is a third-year student at The National University of Advanced Legal Studies, (Kochi) pursuing the course B.A LL.B (Hons). She did her early schooling at The International Indian School, Dammam, and studied commerce stream at Sacred Hearts Public School, Thevara. She had been elected as the school prefect and have been nominated for the position of the  School Captain. She was part of Toastmasters club (Dammam) and was held winner for Extempore Speech. She would like to get an insight into the different aspects of law and further specialise in the field of Human Rights.

Molly Ghosh

Molly Ghosh is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at Barrackpore Rastraguru Surendranath College, West Bengal. She has done her doctoral degree from Jadavpur University and has research interest in gender issues particularly media and women,gender violence and mental health of women She has also earlier worked as Trainer Associate in Capacity Building of Women Manger’s programme of UGC. She has also made research publications and presentations in several seminars and workshops.

Namita Avriti

Namita Avriti is a writer, lawyer and researcher and she lives in Bangalore, India. She is currently the coordinator and editor for GenderIT.org, a platform and think tank on gender, technology and policy which is part of the Women’s Rights Programme of Association for Progressive Communications. She has worked with Alternative Law Forum for 10 years and is a co-founder of the online video archive Pad.ma (Public Access Digital Media Archive). She has written a monograph for Centre for Internet and Society on law, censorship and sexuality. Her interests are in histories of social movements, archiving, technology, law and sexuality. She is also the co-curator and co-director of Bangalore Queer Film Festival, and has organised exhibitions Nirankusha: Fearless Speech and Port of Kashmir.

Nandini Chami

Nandini’s work largely focuses on research and policy advocacy in the domains of digital rights and development, and the political economy of women’s rights in the information society She is part of the organisation’s advocacy efforts around the 2030 development agenda on issues of ‘data for development’ and digital technologies and gender justice.She also provides strategic support to IT for Change’s field centre Prakriye in its training programmes for women’s rights groups on adopting digital tools in their field practice, and critical ‘education for empowerment’ for rural adolescent girls.She has a Masters in Urban and Rural Community Development from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Neomi Rao

Neomi Rao is a research assistant with Dr. Lakshmi Lingam at the School of Media and Cultural Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She also works as a documentation consultant at CORO India, an NGO that empowers leaders in the most marginalised communities to steer collective action for social change. Neomi graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a B.A. in Linguistics and a B.S. in Biological Sciences. She is planning to pursue graduate studies in Social Psychology. Her research interests include social and cultural identity, intergroup stigma and solidarity, intersectional frameworks, and open science.

Phet Sayo

Phet Sayo is a Senior Program Officer for the Networked Economies programme of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), he manages a portfolio that supports research projects/networks on digital rights, censorship and surveillance, the right to privacy in the digital age, intellectual property rights, ICT innovations, and Internet governance.For almost twenty years, he has investigated the impacts of the networked information society on human development in South and Southeast Asia. Before joining IDRC’s regional office in New Delhi, Phet worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Malaysia and Thailand. As an author and editor, he has contributed to numerous UN publications, including ICT Policies and e-Strategies in the Asia-Pacific: A Critical Assessment of the Way Forward, and Internet Governance: Asia-Pacific Perspectives.

Priyanka Chaudhuri

Priyanka is a counsel at Software Freedom Law Centre. She obtained her B.A. L.L.B. (Hons.) from Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur, specializing in Constitutional law and Intellectual Property Rights, following which she litigated at the High Court of Calcutta. Her areas of interest include Constitutional law, Technology law and Human Rights. She is enrolled as an advocate in the Bar Council of West Bengal. At SFLC.in, she is involved in policy and research work, particularly in the areas of Freedom of Speech and Expression, Privacy, Data Protection and Intermediary Liability.

Radhika Radhakrishnan

Radhika Radhakrishnan is a first-year graduate student of M.A. in Women’s Studies at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has a Bachelors in Computer Science Engineering and has worked in the Information Technology industry for 2 years. Her research interests lie at the intersection of gender and technology, with a focus on Artificial Intelligence. She works part-time with the Association for Progressive Communications (Take Back the Tech!) on a curriculum for trainers on gender-based cyber violence. She has also written research articles for GenderIT.org (APC) on women in technology. In 2017, She was an invited speaker at the Global Summit on Technology Enabled Abuse on Cyber Health and Safety. She was an Indian Academy of Sciences Research Fellow at IIT-Ropar and a Research Fellow at the Internship Program in Technology Supported Education by Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh through which she co-published a research paper that she presented at the ACM IKDD Conference on Data Sciences.She has been awarded the M. S. Bharatha Iyengar Award for Excellence in Public Policy. She has assembled outputs for the 2016 report on policy options to support women’s empowerment through ICTs for Internet Governance Forum, United Nations. She was also an invited speaker at the IEEE Women in Engineering Symposium, 2015 and 2016.

Saumya Bhandari

Saumya Bhandari is a Research Assistant in the Centre for Learning Futures at Ahmedabad University. She completed a BA and MA in English Literature from St. Xaviers College, followed by an MA (by research) in Society and Culture at IIT Gandhinagar. Her research interests are in Gender Studies and Queery Theory focusing on language and experience.

Shreya Sen

Shreya Sen is a feminist researcher and activist, deeply invested in issues around gender, childhood, sexuality, violence, health and education. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Jadavpur University and has completed her Master’s in Gender Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Shreya advocates for structural and systemic changes in various Institutions, through training, research and resource building, to make them more diverse, inclusive and easily accessible to marginalized communities. She is a part of various autonomous activist collectives, both online and offline, that aim to build stronger support networks for people looking for safe spaces.Currently, she is working as a Program Officer with Nazdeek in Delhi and Assam.

Smita Vanniyar

Smita is a queer feminist, currently working at Point of View, India, on gender, sexuality and technology. They hold a Master’s degree in Media and Cultural Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Their areas of interest include gender, queer studies, internet, technology, popular culture, films and TV shows, fandoms etc. Smita can be found wandering the cyberspace, or hunting for good coffee.

Sreeparna Chattopadhyay

Sreeparna Chattopadhyay is a cultural anthropologist and feminist scholar. She is currently a Faculty member in the School of Advanced Studies, Srishti Institute, Bangalore. Her prior published academic research has been on domestic violence, marital dissolution, maternal health, and more recently on sexual violence. She has done fieldwork in West Bengal, Assam, North Karnataka and Bombay. In addition to academic research, Sreeparna has also worked in applied policy research focussing on welfare to work programs for single parents, issues of diversity and inclusion in the UK Higher education setting, and interventions for adolescent girls to prevent drop-outs in rural India. Shae has a Master’s and a Ph.D. from Brown University and a B.A. from St. Xavier’s College, Bombay.

Tahmina Rahman

Tahmina Rahman is Director Bangladesh and South Asia at Article 19. Ms Rahman joined Article 19 as country director in 2008 and spearheaded the establishment of the Bangladesh office into a fully registered international NGO. She has lead and successfully managed projects supported by DfiD, Norway Ministry of foreign Affairs and SIDA. Previously she was the Deputy Director of the International Mobilisation Programme at the Secretariat of Amnesty International. She has held management and policy positions in Oxfam (GB), Water Aid and HAP International. Ms Tahman has also worked in several countries in Asia and Africa including India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and South Africa. She was nominated for “Women of Expression 2012”, an online publication on women who have excelled in human rights activism.

Vidya Reddy

Based in Chennai, Vidya Reddy is the Executive Director and Managing Trustee of Tulir-Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse, a non profit and non governmental agency which she helped co-found in 2004. It’s mandate is to address sexual violence against children and young people, through direct intervention and advocacy activities at various levels. Having recognized the intersection between ICTs and sexual violence, Tulir has been spearheading efforts to educate and lobby with industry, policy makers, law enforcement, educators, young people and the larger community, to ensure that children and young people’s experience with the new technologies is safe and enjoyable while taking into account the constant challenges posed by the balancing of competing rights. Tulir is a Core Committee members of the National Alliance against Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation which was initiated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Govt. of India, in January 2017.

Yatti Soni

Yatti works with IT for Change, Bengaluru as a Communications Associate. She is an alumni of C4SC and Media rights fellowship – ‘Ideosync UNESCO India Fellow (IUIF)’. Before the fellowship, she completed her bachelors in Software Engineering. Yatti pursues pen calligraphy and sketching in leisure time.

Ahmar Afaq

Ahmar Afaq is working as an Assistant Professor in Symbiosis Law School Hyderabad. He is also Director In-charge of Human Rights Cell, Symbiosis Law School Hyderabad. He has a teaching experience of nearly two and a half years. His thrust areas are Personal laws, Human Rights and Women & Law. He did his schooling from AMU and then to pursue his interest in the field of law he took admission in Faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim University in 2008. He passed his B.A.LL.B. and LL.M. in 2013 and 2015 respectively with First Division. He has qualified UGC NET thrice. His dissertation on ‘Surrogacy and Ethics: An Appraisal’ was commendable. He has published number of research papers in different journals/books of national repute. He has also presented plethora of research papers on legal and social issues in International and National seminars/conferences which were highly applauded.   

Anita Gurumurthy

Anita Gurumurthy is a founding member and executive director of IT for Change, where she leads research collaborations and projects in relation to the network society, with a focus on governance, democracy and gender justice. Her work reflects a keen interest in southern frameworks and the political economy of Internet governance and data and surveillance. Anita engages actively with policy makers, practitioners, social movements activists and the academic community to expand and deepen conversations on the public policy imperatives of the intertwining of the digital in all spheres of life. She also directs and draws inspiration from the work of Prakriye, IT for Change’s field centre, that works towards promoting women’s and girls’ leadership and digital capabilities.

Archana Kaware

Archana Kaware is a student of MA in media and cultural studies from Tata institute of social sciences, Mumbai. She did her under graduation in political science from Fergusson college, Pune.  Her area of interest are politics of development in both urban and rural areas, social and environmental issues. She has worked on a documentary about accessibility to Street to visually challenged person ‘Street in four senses’. She is currently working on MA dissertation on ‘Expression of Kunbi women through folksongs’ and documentary film on mangrove and politics of development in Mumbai.

Archismita Choudhury

Archismita Choudhury is a feminist researcher and writer who has been working in the digital feminist sphere since 2012. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from TISS, Guwahati (2015) and holds a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies from TISS, Mumbai (2017). She is the founder of Being Feminist, an online forum that facilitates feminist dialogue and expression. Currently, she is working as the Media and Communications Coordinator at Breakthrough India, New Delhi.

B. Radha

Dr.B.Radha is an assistant professor with Department of Communication at the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University. She has 5 years of experience in the field of human rights and social science research at state and national level – worked in projects relating to women, children, Dalits and marginalized. She also has 8 years of research and teaching experience . she has given radio talks on various issues including women and media, problems of adolescent girls and media ethics.Her areas of research include cultural communication, social interactions, human rights and development communication, film studies, ,media laws and ethics, critical discourse analysis, critical media information and literacy. She received an ICSSR project on “Women and Media’ in January 2017.She was one of the participants in the 38th International Human Rights Training Program (IHRTP) – 2017, held in Montreal, Canada from 4th – 23rd June 2017 by Equitas, Canada.She has co authored text books for High School children and undergraduate students. She has published multiple papers on digital cultures, gender and human rights.

Gayathri Menon

Gayatri Menon teaches at Azim Premji University’s School of Development. She works on the political economy of development, focusing on urbanization, displacement, and questions of home.

Geeta Ramaseshan

Geeta Ramaseshan is a much-respected lawyer of the Madras High Court with over 35 years of experience as a litigator. She is known for her work in upholding the rights of women, is a famed commentator on gender issues, and is on the boards of multiple organisations empowering females and minorities. She had also led a fact-finding committee into atrocities on Sikhs in Coimbatore in 1984 after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. On the basis of her report the High Court had awarded compensation to the victims.

Isha Bhallamudi

Isha Bhallamudi is a research assistant with Prof. Lakshmi Lingam at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India. She graduated with an Integrated MA in Development Studies from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras this July. She has previously worked at the University of Oxford and with the National Bureau of Economic Research, USA on projects related to poverty and social networks. At TISS, Isha has worked on multiple projects related to gender and policy within the Indian context. She is interested in working with innovative methodologies within the intersections of gender, health and poverty with the aim of informing social policy and development research.

Kalpana Sharma

Kalpana Sharma is a Mumbai-based independent journalist, columnist and media consultant who writes for English language and Indian language publications in India. Until recently, she was Deputy Editor with The Hindu. In her four decades as a full-time journalist, she has also held senior positions in Himmat Weekly, Indian Express and Times of India. She has written three books: Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories from Asia’s Largest Slum (Penguin 2000), Whose News? The Media and Women’s Issues (Sage 1994, 2006) and Terror Counter-Terror: Women Speak Out (Kali for Women, 2003), both co-edited with Ammu Joseph. She has also edited Missing: Half the Story, Journalism as if Gender Matters (Zubaan Books).Currently, she is a consulting editor with the Economic and Political Weekly . Her areas of interest include environmental, developmental and gender issues.

Kiruba Munusamy

Kiruba Munusamy is an advocate practising in the Supreme Court of India. She is a social, political and judicial activist striving for social justice by eliminating all forms of discriminations, oppressions and inequalities in the society. She is working against various human rights violations in India that includes caste and gender based discriminations, caste based atrocities against Dalits, violence against women, discrimination in the academic spaces, death penalty, state repression and prohibition of the inhuman practice of manual scavenging.Through her activism she works for the annihilation of caste and supports Dalit women empowerment, indigenous rights, LGBTQI rights, minorities, advancement of disadvantaged groups, and freedom of expression. She has filed several public interest litigations before the Indian courts of law to bring judicial intervention in the issues of grave violation of human rights and to restore the fundamental rights of the public at large.Apart from the legal framework, she organizes and conducts awareness campaigns, workshops to bring awareness and educate the downtrodden, sexual minorities (LGBTQI) and dalit women about their fundamental human rights and legal remedies on violation.

Lakshmi Lingam

Dr. Lakshmi Lingam is a Professor with the School of Media and Cultural Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. Dr. Lakshmi was the Deputy Director at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), in Hyderabad from May 2011- May 2016 and prior to that she was Dean, Research and Development and a Professor with the Centre for Women’s Studies, at the Institute. Dr. Lakshmi is an academic leader, administrator and a well-known gender specialist. In the year 2015, Dr. Lakshmi was selected to participate in the Fulbright-Nehru Education Administrators Fellowship programme. She was a Fulbright New Century Scholar (2004-5) exploring the subject of Global Empowerment of Women. Dr. Lakshmi Lingam is on the Curriculum Advisory Boards of several Women’s Studies Departments in Indian Universities as well as Technical and Ethical Advisory Board member of NGOs. Dr. Lakshmi has undertaken several national and international development research and evaluation studies published extensively and has travelled widely within and outside the country on academic pursuits. Dr Lingam had recently concluded a study on Smartphone use among adolescents funded by the UNICEF.

Mohd Imran

Mohd Imran is a student of Faculty of Law, AMU Murshidabad Centre (West Bengal). Currently. He is working as Chair-Editorial Committee, Section for Law Students, Indian National Bar Association. He is associated with Association for Democratic Reform (NGO) and KnowledgeSteez (A web portal for educational opportunities). He is also Secretary of Law Society. Mr. Imran has presented various research papers in national and international conferences and seminars and has got his several article published in reputed peer reviewed law journals.

Nafisa Ferdous

Nafisa Ferdous is a researcher and gender specialist. Currently she supports advocacy and capacity building via South-South partnerships with the feminist human rights organization Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA). She has previously worked in the social learning and gender theme within the CGIAR in projects across Vietnam, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Ghana, and Kenya. She has co-published papers, blogs, briefs, and methodology guides on participatory research and gender transformative approaches to climate change.

Nargees Basheer

A student of The National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi, She is currently pursuing her first-year course at B.A. L.L.B. (Hons.). She completed her schooling at Vidyodaya School, Kochi, in commerce stream and was a topper in Economics. She has held numerous posts including that of the elected Senior School Captain of the student council body of my school. She has won numerous prizes in debating and speaking competitions and was awarded the title of best speaker of the outgoing batch of my school in 2017. She wishes to explore the field of law to bring to light further the scope of social service in law.

Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi Goyal is a disabled feminist from India. Working at the intersection of disability and gender, she is committed to changing the lives of women and girls with disabilities. Nidhi’s work spans research, writing, training, campaigns, advocacy, and art. She is the founder and director of Rising Flame – a Mumbai -based organization working for persons with disabilities with a focus on women and youth with disabilities. She is also the Sexuality and Disability Program Director at the non-profit Point of View where she has researched and co-authored a pioneering online initiative www.sexualityanddisability.org— a comprehensive online resource on disability, gender, sexuality and violence. Nidhi also consults with a range of national and global women’s’ and human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch and CREA. Nidhi has been actively advocating at policy and legislative levels in India to address issues of girls and women with disabilities. . She works to raise the profile of issues at the intersection of disability and gender through op-eds, journal articles, lectures in national and international forums. Nidhi has been appointed to the prestigious civil society advisory group of UN women’s Executive Director, sits on the advisory board of “Voice” a grant making facility by Dutch Ministry,  has been globally elected on the board of AWID (Association for Women’s Rights in Development). Finally, she is India’s first-ever female disabled stand -up comic artist who uses humour to challenge prevalent notions around disability, gender and sexuality. You can read more about Nidhi’s work @saysnidhigoyal.

Niranjana Prem

Niranjana Prem is an Independent Researcher who works on Information and Communication Technologies for Development, with specific interest in debates around
technological innovation and implementation practices in rural India. Her research interests also include music and cultural studies, and fancultures. She has taught courses in ‘ICTs and Development’ and ‘Understanding Music’ in TISS, Mumbai. She is currently working in the project ‘Certificate Course in Social Accountability and Social Audit’ in the School of Social Work, TISS, Mumbai as Programme Coordinator.

 

Prabha Sridevan

Justice (Retd.) Prabha Sridevan served as a judge of the Madras High Court from 2ND March 2000 to 8TH August, 2010. Post retirement, she served as the Chairman, Intellectual Property Appellate Board, from May 2011 to August 2013 and also as the Chairman , Think Tank to frame India’s IPR policy. Her judgements include cases dealing with freedom of speech, disability rights, rights of the depressed classes and Dalits, worth of the homemaker’s work, interpretation of S.3(d) of the Patents Act and the compulsory licence for the cancer drug Nexavar. She writes and translates in Tamil and English, translator and also does line drawings which have been auctioned to raise funds.

R.Nivetha

R. Nivetha has completed her post graduate degree in Mass Communication and Journalism through regular mode at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu in the year 2009-11. She is doing her Ph.D research entitled “ Cybercrime and Women” since August 2017 onwards in full time regular mode under the guideship of Dr.B.Radha, Assistant Professor in Communication, Department of Communication, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli. She has also presented papers under the topics “Online Consumeristic Patterns of Women Students in Tirunelveli city” and “Online Media for Women Students Development”.

Ranu Tomar

Dr Ranu Tomar, recently accomplished her Doctoral Research titled ‘Understanding Women Journalists’ Experiences of working in Hindi Print Journalism in cities of Madhya Pradesh’ . She also earned an M. Phil. degree in Development Studies from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.Her dissertation was on ‘The Political Economy of News Construction in Print Media: a Case Study of Bhopal Gas Tragedy’ . Her independent research paper on ‘Status of Women Journalist in Hindi Print Media in India (2011)’ was presented at General Conference of European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) and Development Studies Institute (DSA) held at York, United Kingdom. In June 2014, she presented another research paper tiled ‘Understanding Counter-hegemony and Feminist Approach in Bhopal Movement’ in Bonn, Germany. She has also worked as Project Coordinator at Mumbai-based NGO Point of View (POV) from October 2012 to April 2013. Her Masters in Mass Communication degree helped her to pursue journalistic work experience with English print media. Her articles and feature writings have been published in magazines and newspapers. Her academic research work and interests cover Gender, Media, Communication, News Construction, Hindi Print Media and Social Media.

Shehla Rashid

Shehla Rashid Shora is currently pursuing her Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. She was Vice-President of the students’ union (JNUSU) from 2015-16. Her M.Phil. dissertation dealt with the subject of hate speech. She has, in the past, worked with the Internet Democracy Project as Project Officer, and subsequently with the Asia Internet Coalition where she authored a paper on India’s intermediary liability regime and its human rights implications. She currently writing a book on Student Politics in India.

Shewli Kumar

Shewli Kumar is Associate Professor in Center for Women centered Social Work, School of Social Work, TISS. At present she is the Gender Amity Committee chairperson of TISS. Her areas of interest are child labour and child rights, women and gender issues, specifically with regard to gendered division of labour, work and social protection. Research interests are women and law, work, livelihoods and social policy. She is keenly involved in working with Dalit women’s rights groups and believes in engagement with communities of resistance and marginalities. Lead author of ‘Gendered Terrain of Maintenance for Women: Enmeshed Inequalities in Culture and Law (2017)’ and several articles in national and international journals. She has an MA in Social Work and Mphil and Ph.D. Degree from University of Delhi, Delhi. She also has a Diploma in Labour Laws from the Indian Labour Law Institute in Delhi.

Shreya Seturaman

Shreya Seturaman holds an undergraduate degree in law and two post graduate degrees in journalism, most recently an MA in Arts and Culture Journalism from Columbia Journalism School, New York. She also holds a post graduate diploma in Human Rights from National Law School of India University. She has worked as a journalist for six years in New Delhi. Currently, She is a researcher at a New Delhi-based think tank, where she works on the cyber world and gender.

Srijan Sandip Mandal

A historian by training and temperament, Srijan Sandip Mandal specialises in the Constitution of India, specifically the right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined therein. It was the subject of his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Hyderabad, which was awarded the Department of History’s annual best thesis prize. Beyond the Constitution, in particular, and legal history, in general, he is also interested in the philosophy of history and historiography, which was the subject of his M.Phil. dissertation – also at the University of Hyderabad. He has presented his research both in India and abroad, and has been published in a couple of edited books and a peer-reviewed journal. But, what he is passionate about is the effective communication of historical scholarship to an audience beyond academia. That is why he teaches at the Center for Public History in the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Bengaluru.

Syeda Tanzeela Husain

Syeda Tanzeela Husain is a 26 year old artist with a cause. She holds a masters in Animation and Visual Effects from AJK Mass Communication Research Centre and her drawings are an expression of her ideals and beliefs. Being a practicing Muslim herself, Tanzeela’s art is a medium of expressing her interpretation of Islam vis-á-vis the patriarchal society. She hopes that her art influences her audience towards feminism and equality. In today’s world, where the idea that “women are second class citizens” still prevails, she hopes that her take on feminism will be the stepping stone towards equality, for many individuals.  Tanzeela has set up shop and participated in various college fests and national level exhibitions, most recently at ComicCon, 2017, New Delhi. Her art has inspired many and she hopes that in the years to come, her efforts shall not be in vain.

Veena Gowda

Veena Gowda is a women’s rights lawyer who has been practicing in the High Court of Bombay, Family Court and other trial courts since over two decades. A graduate of the prestigious National Law School of India University, Bangalore, she began her career with a Mumbai-based legal aid centre for women. In 2005, she established an independent practice, and has since secured justice for several women in cases of domestic violence, sexual harassment at the workplace, sexual abuse, and property rights cases. She currently heads a team of lawyers working exclusively on women’s legal rights.

Vineetha Venugopal

Vineetha works as a project associate with IT for Change. She holds a Masters in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Prior to joining IT for Change, She worked as a software engineer with Infosys and Dell. Her interest areas are urban governance and environmental justice.