|| Governance & Accountability ||

VIJAY PARMAR

MEMBER

CHAIRPERSON

Since his student life, Vijay Parmar has been engaged as a volunteer with Behavioural Science Centre (BSC) in human rights quest for Dalits and underprivileged. After graduation, he joined BSC full time to work with the communities, while pursuing studies in law and management to equip himself for effective work at micro and macro level. Later as Director of BSC, he was instrumental in designing and setting up Peoples Organizations, womens savings & credit cooperatives, CBOs and NGOs. Since 2000 he has been associated with Janvikas – HIDRC in different capacities. He took the mettle of Janvikas in 2007 as CEO and over the years played a key role in strengthening Janvikas and its institutional field across the country. His continued to support large number of POs, CBOs, NGOs working on the issues of caste, communal and ethnic discrimination, youth, livelihood and governance in small NGOs. Currently he is Managing Trustee of Janvikas.

Professor Alka Parikh

MEMBER

former Dean, Amity University, Mumbai & Bennett University, Noida

Dr. Alka Parikh is a gold medalist in MA (Economics) from Mumbai University and holds a PhD degree from Department of Agriculture and Allied Economics, Cornell University, USA. She is the Dean, School of Liberal Arts, Bennett University. Dr. Parikh was formerly the Dean of Research (Social Sciences) & Director Amity Institute of Liberal Arts at Amity University. She has worked in TISS, Mumbai, Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy and DAIICT, Gandhinagar. Her research and publications address various aspects of economic development, including agriculture, poverty, employment, food and water security. Her areas of specialisations include Development Economics (concentrating mainly on rural development) and Agriculture Economics. She also gives her time to NGOs like Utthan (Gujarat) and Uplift (Pune) to further her commitment to the field.

ASHOKE CHATTERJEE

MEMBER

Ashoke Chatterjee received his education at Woodstock School (Mussoorie), St. Stephen’s College (Delhi University) and Miami University (Ohio). He has a background in the engineering industry, international civil service, India Tourism Development Corporation, and 25 years in the service of the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad) where he was Executive Director, Senior Faculty, Distinguished Fellow and Professor of communication and management. He has served a range of development institutions in India and overseas, particularly in the sectors of livelihoods, handcrafts, drinking water, sanitation, education, and disability as well as working with artisans in many parts of India. He was Hon President of the Crafts Council of India for over twenty years and continues to serve CCI. Prof Chatterjee has served on the Board of Aid To Artisans (USA). An author and writer, his books include “Dances of the Golden Hall” on the art of Shanta Rao and “Rising” on empowerment efforts among deprived communities in rural Gujarat. Prof Chatterjee continues to assist design education, and is Adviser at Ahmedabad University’s Centre for Heritage Management. He lives in Ahmedabad with his son Keshav, daughter-in-law Prativa and grandchildren Kabir and Alisa.

BINOY ACHARYA

MEMBER

Binoy Acharya is the founder director of UNNATI - Organisation for Development Education for the last 30 years. As a social development practitioner and researcher his area of interest are participatory training and research, capacity-development on social development perspectives on issues of gender, stakeholder participation, social inclusion, vulnerability analysis, community based social accountability and facilitation of participatory program planning, strategic planning, impact assessment and evaluation for development programs. He has been instrumental in developing and implementing programs on enabling public programs to reach the last mile, strengthening decentralised governance, social accountability and disaster risk reduction. He has been associated with movements, networks and government forums relating to Dalit rights, gender issues and decentralized governance. During 2010-14, he worked in association with the Government of Gujarat to operationalize the social audit system covering the entire state for MGNREGA, one of the public programs on entitlement on wage employment. Studied the pro-active disclosure practices by selected departments of the Government of Gujarat with the request of the Information Commissioner (RTI) of Gujarat in 2014. He extended technical support to NDMA in 2016 and 2019 for the preparation and subsequent revision of the National Disaster Management Plan. He was the National Monitor for capacity building of PRIs, Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR), Govt. of India, 2017. Currently, he plays consultative role to a wide range of institutions locally and internationally, like Social Audit Society of Govt. of Gujarat, Gujarat CSR Authority and Gender Resource Centre in Gujarat, Dalit Adhikar Abhiyan in Rajasthan, SETU Abhiyan; mentoring the fellows in Leadership Development Initiative of International Budget Partnership; Chairperson of Voluntary Action Network India, a national apex network of CSOs, to mention a few. He holds an MPhil degree in Social Sciences from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Ms. Nafisa Barot

MEMBER

Founder & former Executive Director, Utthan

With four decades of experience in building gender sensitive institutions for the empowerment of rural marginalized communities, Nafisa Barot is actively associated with various movements, influencing people and policies around water, gender justice and sustainable development.

Persevering to understand what options communities might have for development and hope in coastal Gujarat, efforts in working with women with a potential for leadership and with stamina to face barriers to change, led her to co found Utthan in 1981. Today, Utthan has established its identity in successfully demonstrating how gender sensitive institutional mechanisms and technologies through women’s leadership and community participation can address the issues of the most marginalized. In 2016, she instituted leadership succession within Utthan, a marker of her belief in ensuring institutional sustainability.

Nafisa has served on Government task forces of CAPART, NABARD, DWACRA, Planning Commission amongst a few. She is a founder Board member of Mahiti, Development Support Centre, Pravah and Working Group for Women & Land Ownership and India Wash Forum. She is currently on the Steering Committees of Water Conflict Forum and Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch. She has also published several articles on gender/water governance and community agency and been invited to speak at national and international forums.

Nafisa is a recipient of ATREE’s T.N Khoshoo Memorial Award, 2005 for exemplary work in conservation and sustainable development. Her sectoral leadership and contributions to the establishment and promotion of community-based initiatives on WASH, roles and needs of women, led to her win the International Water Association’s Women in Water Award, 2020.
Nafisa continues to be on the Board of Utthan and formally mentors Utthan’s new leadership. She also engages in various capacities in the broad sector of water, gender and conflict transformation.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Food and Nutrition from M.S. University, Baroda.

NEELIMA KHETAN

MEMBER

Neelima Khetan, Managing Partner of Nous Consultants, is a senior CSR and Social Sector expert. She has over 3 decades of experience in this space, having worked with leading for-profit and nonprofit organizations in the country. Her current affiliations include Visiting Fellow with Centre for Social and Economic Progress (earlier called Brookings India) and Visiting Faculty with Chandragupta Institute of Management, Patna. Earlier, Neelima has been the Group CSR Head for Vedanta Group, where she provided oversight and guidance to the CSR efforts of 11 business units of the Group, located across India and Africa. She was also (concurrently) Vice President, CSR at Hindustan Zinc (part of Vedanta Group). Prior to joining Vedanta, Neelima was the Director, CSR and Sustainability for Coca Cola India and South West Asia – where she led the company’s CSR/Sustainability programs across 6 countries in South Asia. Neelima has long experience in the social sector, having held leadership positions like – India Country Director of the American India Foundation and Chief Executive of Seva Mandir in Udaipur. In between, she was also the Acting Director of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA). Neelima has served on the Boards of many NGOs and Academic Institutions. She has also served on many Central and State Government Committees, including the Land Reforms Committee of the Government of India and the Task Force to suggest Decentralized Funding Mechanisms to the Planning Commission. Neelima holds a Master’s in Rural Management from IRMA and a Bachelor’s in Commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University.

SARA AHMED

MEMBER

Sara Ahmed is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Water Research, Dept of Humanities and Social Sciences at IISER-Pune. She has nearly 30 years of applied research experience on water, livelihoods and social equity. She has been actively engaged in teaching and mentoring young development professionals in India at IRMA, Anand, managing large and complex regional research portfolios on water, food security and climate change with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Asia, and advising a range of development organisations and water networks globally. Sara holds a PhD in Environmental Sociology from the University of Cambridge and is currently on the board of WaterAid, India, Wetlands International South Asia, the Development Support Centre Foundation and Samerth. She has published extensively on gender and water governance and her last co-edited book is entitled, Diverting the Flow: Gender Equity and Water in South Asia (2012). In 2017, Sara launched the Living Waters Museum, a virtual repository on our water heritage, and helped with the development of the Global Network of Water Museums endorsed by UNESCO-IHP as a special initiative towards SDG 6.

SUDARSHAN IYENGAR

MEMBER

Sudarshan Iyengar has a PhD in Economics and was the Former Vice Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad (2005-14), Former Director, Centre for Social Studies, Surat (2004-05), and Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad (1999-2004). He was the Chair Professor of Gandhian Philosophy, at IIT, Mumbai from 2016-18. His major focus of research has been Gandhian thoughts and practice, natural resource development and management, people and civil society institutions. He is a member of several management boards of voluntary organisations including Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad, and Gujarat Vidyapith. He has actively worked for rehabilitation of tribals that were displaced in the Narmada Dam Project in the 1990s. He also worked towards relief and rehabilitation of earthquake affected people in Kachchh Gujarat in 2001. He was the Vice Chairperson of the High Level Dandi Memorial Committee 2009 to 2019 and member of the National Gandhi Heritage Sites Mission, by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. He has published 70 research articles and 8 books including Gandhiji and Sanitation by Publication Division, GoI 2016. He currently lives in Dharampur, Valsad a tribal district and works with Action Research in Community Health and Development (ARCH), Sarvodya Parivar Trust Pindval (SPT), and Kedi School run by Kaivalya Trust in Dharampur.