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Enable & Amplify: Voice, Agency, Leadership
Over 20 Years Of Facilitating Change
Foregrounded in the 73rd constitutional amendment of 1992, The Hunger Project India started working with elected women representatives at the local self-governance level in 2001. Over the years, THP India’s strategies have consistently aimed at empowering women in gram panchayats to be effective leaders.
Over the last two decades, we have successfully engaged with 1,97,121 elected women representatives We’re currently working in the five states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. Through multiple programmatic interventions, THP India’s strategy is geared towards building the leadership of elected women representatives and strengthening their skills and capacities to be effective leaders on the ground.The focus is on enabling elected women to leverage the public office and exercise their “voice” and “power” to address issues of sustainable development, gender equality, and social justice. The intervention strategies are closely aligned with the five-year term of the panchayat administration.
Fundamental Working Principles
Through our work to empower women leaders, we have recognised these principles as being fundamental to The Hunger Project. We challenge ourselves to ensure that each of our strategies builds on these principles.
Gender Equality
Decentralisation
Inclusion
Collaboration
Accountability
Social Justice
Watch Jamuna Devi – Standing Tall on the Covid19 Frontline – Odisha
Jamuna Devi: As an Adivasi President-elect of the Gajapati village council (Odisha), Jamuna’s presence in the public office is a matter of huge pride and comfort for other women in the community. Thanks to her cognizant pursuit of equitable development every village now has access to clean drinking water.
Building a Better Future
These are the beautiful people behind THP India. Get to know the staff.
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Governing Council
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National Office Staff
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State Team
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01Governing Council
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Pari Jhaveri
ChairPari comes with 20-plus years of experience across Executive Search, Human Resources, Media and Advertising, FMCG, and Education domains. She started her career with Ogilvy Advertising where she set up the country’s first brand social responsibility business practice. Subsequently, Pari founded the search firm Third Sector Partners. She has been a board member and served on boards of innovative nonprofits and social enterprises. She also co-founded Katalyst, an initiative that prepares young women from disadvantaged backgrounds for leadership roles, thereby creating a wider talent pool for India Inc. Pari has previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Sesame Workshop, India. Currently, Pari leads ‘Purpose Leaders’ a bespoke leadership executive-life coaching and C-suite and Boards search and counseling with a presence in key mature and emerging markets. She is a performing arts enthusiast trained in theatre and classical music. She has served on the juries of film festivals and other such forums, and her work reflects a creative amalgamation of arts, culture, business, creative leadership, and innovation. She holds an M.A. in International Relations and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, Boston, USA. She has B.A. and M.A. degrees in psychology, social sciences, and non-profit and business management from the University of Mumbai, India.
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Preeta Lall
TreasurerPreeta is a development professional with 30 years of experience encompassing grassroots institution building, provisioning technical assistance to national and subnational governments, and shaping and managing bilateral assistance in the governance sector. She is currently a consultant to a range of subnational initiatives in India aimed at strengthening localisation of SDGs. She led the secretariat of Local Governance Initiative and Network (LOGIN), a multi-stakeholder Asian network that facilitated peer learning on good governance, conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and citizenship, from 2013-2021. Preeta was also a Senior Thematic Advisor at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in India. During her time at SDC, THP India received multi-year grants. She holds a B.A. (Hons) in Economics from Sriram College of Commerce (SRCC), New Delhi, and has earned an M.A. in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Management, Gujarat, India.
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Madhavi Misra
SecretaryMadhavi Misra is a public health specialist with over 15 years of work experience in health systems and maternal and child health in India. She has worked with noted organisations such as the Public Health Foundation of India, Population Foundation of India, Oxford Policy Management Ltd., Population Council, and the Ministry of Health, Government of India. Madhavi holds an M.A. in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and a second M.A. in Public Health from the University of Warwick, UK. She is a Chevening Gurukul Fellow (2017, University of Oxford, UK). Currently, she is working in India on a primary health care strengthening programme with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, (Department of International Health). Madhavi is also pursuing her Doctoral degree in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, US.
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Krishna Menon
MemberKrishna Menon is a Professor of Gender Studies, School of Human Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi. She is the former Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Feminist Journal of Politics. She has published books and papers on feminist theory and politics, debates within political theory, and issues in Indian politics. Her analyses of social movements in India and commentaries on feminism, women’s rights, and democracy draw on diverse sources of knowledge and expression. She has taught at the Department of Political Science, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi.
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Debarpita Banerjee
MemberDebarpita has 25 years of experience across diverse sectors in advertising and marketing and is an evangelist for Women in Leadership positions in the sector. She launched and hosted fireside chats under the umbrella of “She Can She will”- an initiative to inspire and ignite middle-level women to reach leadership positions. She is currently the CEO, FCB India & Fuel Content India. In the past, she has worked with iconic brands like India Today, Coca-Cola, Horlicks, National Geographic, Google, Vistara, Dominos’, Uber, to name a few. Debarpita is a St. Xavier’s College graduate with a post-graduation in Mass Communication and an Executive Education Program in Business and Management from the Columbia Business School, New York. Passionate about travel and exploration and fascinated with technology, she recently launched an app- MadMaps, that will help travellers make hyperlocal discoveries easily.
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Ayush Chauhan
MemberAyush is one of the co-founders of Quicksand, a multi-disciplinary design and innovation consultancy working at the intersection of business, development, and culture in India. He promotes design for social development by connecting the best practices of design with development programmes to address the pressing and complex issues of social equity, public health, and education. He is also part of the Board of Directors at the William J. Clinton Foundation in India. He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is a recipient of the prestigious Yale World Fellowship in 2012. An avid triathlete in the past, Ayush firmly believes in its potential to move humanity forward. Ayush is also a fitness enthusiast but in constant battle with the inner foodie.
02National Office Staff
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Ruchi Yadav
Global Programme AdvisorRuchi is in charge of programme strategy, implementation and management across the India programme. She also supervises the training portfolio and is responsible for mainstreaming gender in all interventions. She has been with THP since 2007. She has worked on issues related to women’s rights and human rights in South Asia and Southeast Asia. She has over 15 years of work experience in the development sector, with a short stint in advertising early in her career. She is vitally interested in the intersections of gender with politics, religion, caste, and class. Ruchi holds a Masters Degree in International Development from the School of International Service, American University, Washington DC. In 2012, she was awarded the Yale World Fellowship.
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Paritosh Sasmal
Interim Director/Director - FinanceParitosh oversees finance, accounts and audits. Financial compliance of all grants and partners’ budgets are also monitored by him. He has over 18 years of experience in finance management of NGOs. He holds a BA of Commerce degree from Vidyasagar College, West Bengal.
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Darshan Surendranath
Associate Director - ProgrammesDarshan oversees programme implementation in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. Darshan has a background in child rights, volunteering, and the corporate sector. He holds an MA in Economics from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, Maharashtra.
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Ganga Gupta
National Coordinator: TrainingGanga is a master trainer with THP and has been conducting training workshops across THPs programme intervention areas since 2005. She has an excellent command over training skills, participatory methodology and has a deep understanding of issues related to gender, governance, women’s rights and women’s political leadership in rural India. She is also invested in empowering adolescent girls and conducts trainings on life skills, leadership and citizenship for them. She has over 30 years of grassroots experience in the rural development sector and brings invaluable insights to programmes. She holds a BA in Humanities from the University of Rajasthan.
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Smriti Minocha
Senior Programme OfficerSmriti joined THP India in November 2024. She is a qualified lawyer by training and social justice advocate with over 16 years of experience in the development sector. She has led impactful projects and partnerships, empowering grassroots organizations to address gender-based violence, improve access to justice, and promote women and girls’ leadership. She has previously worked with the Maitri Network, Jan Sahas, the Human Rights Law Network, and other organizations. She completed her LLB in 2020 and holds her Masters in Understanding and Securing Human Rights from Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.
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Surbhi Mahajan
Communications - Senior Programme OfficerSurbhi joined THP India in 2018 in the capacity of communications officer overseeing all six states. She has an MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex), and an M.Phil/MA from Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) in Modern History. She is also a volunteer member at Make Every Woman Count, a London based women-led organisation working on African women’s rights. Prior to this, she worked as a programme officer at the Women’s Fund Asia. Her interests include understanding discourses around gender, social justice, and the utility of visual representation in documenting change narratives.
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Bharani Sundararajan
National Programme OfficerBharani is the grants administrator of THP India partner organisations. She supports budget development processes and coordinates with partners on compliance and financial reporting. Additionally, she manages the Country Director’s office in Delhi. She holds a Diploma in Computer Science and Engineering from Pallavan College, Tamil Nadu.
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Varsha Chaudhary
Research & Data AssociateVarsha has been working in the development sector for 4+ years. Previously she was with Sphere India, in the capacity of a Research Associate. She has also worked with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), where she contributed towards the monitoring and assessment of the Online Building Permission System Project (OBPS) in the Northeastern states. Curious about public policies she has interned with PRS Legislative Research and contributed to research requirements related to policy review of Bills and Acts during the Budget Session of the Parliament, 2021. Passionate about writing, she has a personal blog – The White Calm Black Eyes.
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Md. Moazzam
Senior Manager - ResearchHe has joined the MEL team in Delhi as Senior Manager – Research. From Hazaribag, Jharkhand, Moazzam previously worked with CInI-Tata Trust for 14 years and led the Monitoring & Evaluation portfolio there. He has vast experience in designing and co-developing online data-capturing platforms and apps for data collection and dashboards. He did his MBA in Rural Development from Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Ranchi, Jharkhand.
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Amit Goyal
Administrative OfficerAmit supports the administration and the finance team and also looks after IT processes at the National office and 6 state offices. He holds a MBA (Human Resource) from Symbiosis College, Pune, Maharashtra.
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Shiw Shankar Mahato
Accounts OfficerShiw is responsible for book-keeping and voucher scrutiny, while also assisting in filing tax returns and Statutory reports. He holds a BA degree in Commerce from Ranchi University, Jharkhand.
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Nidhi Kumari
Senior Administrative AssociateNidhi is responsible for travel bookings and also handles administrative duties. She has been with The Hunger Project since March 2007. Nidhi holds BA degree in Science from Magadh University, Bihar.
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Naveen Verma
Finance OfficerNoveen joined THP India in February 2022 and is responsible for routine accounting work such as verifying the vendor bills/vouchers, payments processing, staff travel settlement, support in the preparation of monthly and periodic financial reports, to name a few. Prior to joining THP, he worked with Netherlands Leprosy Relief India, Digital Empowerment Foundation and Deepalaya. Naveen holds over 14 years of experience in the development sector. He has a B.A. in Personal Management.
03State Team
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Bihar
Shahina Perween,
Shahina Perween
Programme OfficerShahina oversees programme planning and implementation in Bihar. Her understanding of women’s rights is reflected in the design of programmatic interventions, training of elected women representatives, creating innovative communication material, and conducting media interactions. She was the coordinator of the THP ‘Fact Finding Team’ to study the cases of gender-based violence during Panchayat elections in 2006. Shahina is an avid writer and contributes to opinion pages in the Hindi and Urdu press. She is also invited to speak at various public forums on women’s political leadership, empowerment of adolescent girls and governance. She holds an MA in Zoology and Journalism from Makhanlal Chaturvedi Rashtriya Patrakarita Evam Sanchar Vishwavidyalay, Bhopal.
Accountantto fill
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Karnataka
Vinodh P., Somasekher Alkod, Padmini Ananth
Vinodh P.
AccountantVinodh handles administration, financial reporting for Karnataka state office, and reviews the accounts of partner organisations. Prior to joining THP India in 2019, he worked with SATHI in Bangalore for over 13 years. He holds a BA in Commerce from Bangalore University and is currently pursuing his MA in Commerce from Gitam University, Visakhapatnam as well as Post Graduate Programme Development Management (PGPDM) from S.P. Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai, India.
Somasekher Alkod
State Programme LeadSomasekhar oversees strategic planning, operations, and partner management. He brings an innovative approach to programme design. He has over 15 years of experience, having worked with reputed organisations like EveryChild (UK) and National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (New Delhi). He holds an MA in Physics from Kalburagi University in Karnataka and another MA in International and Humanitarian Aid from Humanitarian Aid Study Centre (HASC) Proyecto Kālu, Spain.
Padmini Ananth
Sr. Programme AssociatePadmini coordinates program interventions and reporting. She has 20 years of experience working with elected women representatives in Gram Panchayats and has undertaken several research studies on Village Development Plan and Gender Budgeting. She holds an MA in Economics from Karnataka State Open University, Mysore.
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Madhya Pradesh
Ritu Kamble, Belu George, Nitendra Gupta
Ritu Kamble
Programme AssociateRitu Kamble joined the state team in Madhya Pradesh as a programme associate. Since 2020, she has been actively engaged in the social development sector, working across urban slums and rural Madhya Pradesh to empower women, children, adolescents, and youth, with a focus on education, protection, gender equality. She has also worked closely with De-notified Tribal (DNT) communities to promote equitable opportunities. Earlier, Ritu served as a Counsellor and Supervisor at the Society of Pilar in Bhopal, facilitating student counselling, mobilizing funding support for vocational education, and managing tailoring schools for adolescent girls and women. She holds an MBA in Advertising and Public Relations and a Master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) from IGNOU.
Belu George
State CoordinatorBelu George joined THP India as the State Coordinator of Madhya Pradesh. She has rich experience as a development practitioner and a human rights lawyer; and has contributed to lasting systemic changes through her work on land rights, and engagement with internally displaced communities, refugees, and urban poor. In her work with Deenbandhu, an NGO she founded in Indore, she advocated for the vending zones and housing rights within the city master plan. As a lawyer, she has practiced criminal justice for the undertrials and child rights. She has successfully led partnerships with OXFAM, CRY, UNDP, and UNFPA. Belu has authored articles on constitutional justice, the right to privacy, citizenship, and gender. She has done her LLM in International Human Rights Law, from Nottingham University UK and is also a trained social worker.
Nitendra Gupta
AccountantNitendra Gupta has over 8 years of accounting experience in the social sector. He has earlier worked with Naman Seva Samiti (CBM Trust, India) and Action for social Advancement (ASA), Bhopal among others. He holds an M.Com from Barkatullah University. Nitendra joined THP India's state team in Madhya Pradesh in April 2021.
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Odisha
Deepika Ekka, Sukanta Mohapatra
Deepika Ekka
Programme AssociateDeepika Ekka joined THP-India as a programme associate based in the Odisha state office. Her background includes a Master's in Social Work, NET qualification, and significant field research into human rights concerns such as migration, bonded labor and Bartan system. Previously, worked with adolescent girls at NOMI NETWORK and have cultivated strong working relationships with PRIs, line departments, SIRD & PR while serving Zilla Parishad.
Sukanta Mohapatra
State Programme LeadSukanta oversees programme implementation and partner management in Odisha, bringing in strategic thinking and innovation to programme design. He has over 25 years of work experience spanning both the corporate and development sector. His varied experience makes him highly adaptive and creative. He is also one of the Master Trainers at THP and co-leads trainings across THPs programme areas and in South Asia. Sukanta holds an MA in Economics from Sambalpur University, Odisha.
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Rajasthan
Renuka Sharma, Virendra Shrimali
Renuka Sharma
Sr. Programme AssociateRenuka Sharma joins THP India as a senior programme associate based in Rajasthan state office. She has worked on various issues such as family planning, maternal and child health, adolescents health (SRH), early childhood development (ECD), and nutrition. Renuka has a B.A. in Arts from Kanoriya Girls College, Jaipur, and an M.A. in Social work from Vardhmaan University, Kota. Currently, she is also pursuing a distance learning course on food and nutrition from IGNOU.
Virendra Shrimali
State Programme LeadVirendra oversees programme planning and implementation in Rajasthan. He is deeply invested in advancing women’s political leadership at the grassroots level and has been with THP for over 20 years. He has in-depth knowledge of Panchayati Raj Institutions and government programmes in the state. He holds an MA in Economic Administration and Financial Management from Ajmer University.
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Uttarakhand
Himanshu Sati, Kamla Bhatt
Himanshu Sati
Himanshu Sati handles accounts and administration book-keeping, vendor payment, and reporting for Uttarakhand. Before joining THP India he worked with The Corbett Foundation. He holds an MA in commerce from Kumaon University, Nainital.
Kamla Bhatt
Programme OfficerKamla oversees programme implementation in Uttarakhand. She is exceptionally skilled in community mobilisation. Kamla has over 20 years of development sector experience in Uttarakhand and has a deep understanding of issues related to gender, women’s rights, panchayats, governance, education, and livelihood. She holds an MA in Economics from Kumaon University, Nainital and is currently pursuing her MSW from Uttarakhand Open University.
Be a part of the THP India Team
Our Partnerships and Collaborations That Have Enabled Change
American Jewish World Service, Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives, BMZ (Germany), Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, DASRA, Forum Syd (Sweden), Mariwala Charity Trust, New Zealand High Commission, Ribbink Van Den Hoek Foundation (Netherlands), Royal Norwegian Embassy, The Asia Foundation, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Population Fund, UN Women
Current Partners
Previous Partners
Kanika Satyanand
Director, Treasurer, ChairpersonKanika initiated the process of supporting grassroots initiatives in rural, urban and tribal areas through fellowship programs.andnbsp;She currently holds positions as Programme Advisor and member of the Board of Trustees of FORRAD (Foundation for Rural Recovery andamp; Development), member of the SRUTI Executive Board, and member of the Ethics Committee of the Action for Autism.
