Advisory Board
Our Advisory Board comprises individuals with long and varied experience across public service, law and judiciary, mental health, academia and media. Their guidance is shaped by their long engagement with questions of dignity, rights, and public responsibility within their respective fields. Through their collective insight, the Advisory Board strengthens our work by guiding us regularly on wider aspects of our work and organisational development alike. This Board has been associated with the team over the years in different capacities and acts as mentor to the organisation.
Shri Kireet Khurana
Shri Kireet Khurana has spent his career asking what cinema owes to the society it depicts. A filmmaker, animator, and commercial director, he has garnered six President’s National Awards and sixteen International Awards. But it is the social concern of his work that defines it. His work demonstrates a range that moves freely between entertainment and socially conscious cinema.
Shri Lakshman Sethuraman
Shri Lakshman Sethuraman, educated at IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad, spent fourteen years at the Tata Group building expertise in health systems, and went on to serve as Director of Policy & Strategic Initiatives at Karkinos Healthcare. Alongside all of his engagements, he has been a long-time volunteer with organisations working for homeless communities in India.
Shri Mohammed Ahsan Abid, IAS
Shri Mohammad Abid Ahsan has had a long career in public administration. His work has moved across various departments and Ministries. His work as Additional Development Commissioner and Director of Primary Education, were marked with unusual engagement with the poor and destitute where he intervened to secure rights of the children in destitution, resulting in large numbers of children exiting beggary.
Justice (Retd.) Pukhraj R. Bora
Justice (Retd.) Pukhraj R. Bora served as a Judge of the Bombay High Court and, before that, as Registrar of the Supreme Court of India. He was Member Secretary of the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority, when he directed the state to appoint counsels at the Beggars Court in Mumbai. This one direction opened the door to sustained civil society engagement with the court related to the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act. Over the years, that engagement resulted in the release of several thousand people.
Shri R. Subrahmanyam, IAS (Retd.)
Shri R. Subrahmanyam is a retired bureaucrat with almost 4 decades of public service. While serving in key ministries like Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Institutions and Human Resource Development, he contributed significantly to India’s social sector, particularly in redesigning MGNREGA for better efficiency and transparency. As Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, he played a central role in developing the SMILE Scheme, the first government scheme in India to address destitution without criminalising it.
Dr. Soumitra Pathare
Dr. Soumitra Pathare’s contribution to mental healthcare, especially in India is well known. As Director of the Centre for Mental Health & Policy Research in Pune, he worked extensively to shape the legal and institutional frameworks within which care is provided. He has been a key force behind the National Mental Health Policy and Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. His advisory work with the World Health Organization has extended his framework-building capacity to countries across the globe.
Judge Swati Chauhan
An outstanding officer of law, she is known for her dedication to vulnerable groups, especially women and children. Her work in the area of family courts and human trafficking is especially recognised. She is a TIP Report Hero, acknowledged for her instrumental role in combating human trafficking in India. Her work in the beggars court saw many conventions being challenged if it meant better protection and support for the poor.
Dr. Usha Ramanathan
Dr. Usha Ramanathan is a distinguished legal scholar and researcher. She works at the point where law impacts most directly on the lives of the poor. Her work treats poverty as the focal point to the understanding of law and not as a background condition. As a researcher, educator, and advisor to various organisations, she has contributed to issues across environmental, labour, and consumer law, always returning to the question of what legal systems actually do to communities that have no power to resist them.
Shri Zeeshan Shaikh
Shri Zeeshan Shaikh is an Associate Editor at The Indian Express, and leads the Mumbai reporting team. The focus of his work on Maharashtra politics, minority communities, the lives of people at the margins, has made him one of the consistent journalistic voices on the conditions of marginality. He writes consistently about forced evictions, mass raids, about the everyday violence of Beggary Prevention Laws, and he does so with the accumulated knowledge that only comes from pursuing an issue for years.
Shri Ashok Samuel
Shri Ashok is a retired investment professional with thirty years industry experience, most of it in a sovereign wealth fund. He has experience across investment, strategy, risk, operations and team management.
His post-retirement interests centre around teaching, the not-for-profit world, and on building & nurturing relationships.
He continues to engage in investment advisory for both commercial and not-for-profit organisations.
He is also involved in teaching; in financial awareness training; and in addressing inequality.
