The Youth Collective
- Amrita Patwardhan
- Dr. Anita Patil Deshmukh
- Arjun Shekhar
- Ashraf Patel
- Durba Ghose
- Meenu Venkateswaran
- Nayan Patel
- Dr. Ramnarayan Syag
- Rustam Vania
- Ravi Gulati
- Sandip Naik
- Sonam Wangchuk
- Vartika Jaini
- Nanni Singh
- Avinash Kumar
- Gagan Sethi
Amrita Patwardhan
completed her MPhil in Education from University of Delhi. She worked as a primary school teacher in an innovative school in Pune and as a teacher educator with Jeevanshalas in the Narmada valley. She was a visiting fellow in the International Development Department, Clark University, where she investigated the impact of displacement on children. She has been leading the Education portfolio of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust for the past four years
Dr. Anita Patil Deshmukh
is the Executive Director of Partners for Urban Knowledge and Action Research (PUKAR). She is a doctor by profession and graduated from University of Mumbai. She did her MD in Neonatology from the University of Illinois and completed her Masters in Public Health from the Harvard University. She served as a faculty physician in a teaching institute in Chicago for about twenty years, besides being the Director of the Paediatric Residency Programme. During her stay in the USA she played a major leadership role within India Development Service (IDS), a pioneer organization in United States which supports multiple, small scale, socio-economic development projects across India. She is also the Senior Advisor for India China Institute (The New School, NY). Anita has a great passion for working with youth and staunchly believes in participation, democracy and youth empowerment.
Arjun Shekhar
is a co-founder and currently President of Pravah. In 1997 he also founded Vyaktitva, a performance support consulting firm that offers organization development and human resource solutions to some of the leading corporate and non- profit organizations in India. Arjun did a Masters in Economics and HR from XLRI, Jamshedpur. The common thread in all the work Arjun straddles to create ownership for common spaces by empowering people to act in them. Towards this aim Arjun has co-created with others at Pravah and Vyaktitva the 'Big Ticket' program on Instruction Design & Facilitation skills, The Conflict Positive curriculum and the Active Citizenship curriculum, all being used widely in both profit and non- profit organisations. His interests are writing and trekking.
Ashraf Patel
is a co-founder of Pravah and headed the organization for nine years from its beginning till 2002. She is currently the Director, Partnership and is responsible for design and implementation of organization development and youth interventions within Pravah and other partner organizations. Prior to setting up Pravah, Ashraf was heading the HR function at Escorts Finance. She has completed her post graduation in HR from XLRI. She is an Ashoka Fellow and a trustee of the National Youth Foundation. She is also a working group member appointed by the Youth Ministry to make recommendations for the XIth plan.
Durba Ghose
is Director Communications at Pravah. A Post Graduate in Comparative Literature, Durba worked with Vikramshila, Kolkata in the area of education for many years. Before joining Pravah in 2001, she was a communications consultant for CRY- Child Rights and You, Ashoka - Innovators for the Public and other GO/NGOs. Nominated by Pravah, Durba was awarded the Commonwealth Professional Fellowship in 2005 to explore an intensive youth volunteering programme at Voluntary Service Overseas (UK), a module that is now implemented by Pravah in an Indian context. Durba is a trained in Bharatnatyam, and does regular dance workshops with young people.
Meenu Venkateswaran
is a co founder of Pravah and has been heading it as Chief Executive since 2005. Before her stint as CEO, she was responsible for leading and mentoring the Teacher Training intervention at Pravah into a very powerful program for schools. She has over 18 years experience in the corporate and development sectors. She has worked as a consultant to development organizations and was the head of the resource generation function at CRY, Child Relief and You. She has a Masters in Economics and has completed her post graduation in management from IIM, Bangalore. She is also trustee of Spanda, a performing arts trust.
Nayan Patel
is currently working with Janvikas, a rights based development organisation in Gujarat. Janvikas directs its efforts towards individual as well as institutional development. In response to the socio-political disaster of 2002 in Gujarat, Yuvshakti was initiated as a project of Janvikas to work in the worst affected talukas of Halol, Kaalol and Ghoghamba in the Panchmahals District with a very conscious commitment for long term systematic intervention to lead conflict transformation processes through youth empowerment. Soon after completing his Masters in Social Work, he started working with Yuvshakti as a fellow. Since 2004 he has been leading the Yuvshakti programme. His area of interest is in understanding the field of Youth Development, Conflict Transformation and Human Rights. In Yuvshakti they recognise that young people are nurtured in communities, not programmes. Youth spend far more time in socializing systems such as schools or families, which often do not provide the constructive support and direction youth need, than they do in community based organisations.
Dr. Ramnarayan Syag
is a co founder of Samavesh, Society for Development and Governance. He has deep experience in the area of Panchayat Training. He was a member of the Panchayat training team constituted by the Academy of Administration, Government of Madhya Pradesh. His work involved training members of the Zila Panchayat. Currently, as a member of the Anchor in Aagaz Academy, Bhopal, he is associated with the “Community Based Participatory Programme for Strengthening Elementary Education” in Dewas & Harda Districts of Madhya Pradesh. He was also associated with the material development team “Understanding Society” in Doosra Dashak in Rajasthan. Syag Bhai was associated with Eklavya since its beginning and conceptualised the Chakmak clubs. He was the vice chairperson of BGVS, Madhya Pradesh and was associated with the people's science program. He did his doctorate in teacher education and has also been a teacher in DAV College, Abohar.
Rustam Vania
is an independent creative communications consultant. As an editorial and information designer, he is interested in the interface between educational needs and creative design/communication solutions. He has over a decades experience in creating popular creative communication strategies for science, environment and development education. He was the founder editor and designer of Gobar Times, a monthly magazine supplement to Down To Earth, the science and environment fortnightly published by the New Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment. He is presently a faculty member at the Bangalore based Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology.
Ravi Gulati
has been involved for over the last 10 years in building a nurturing community of young people who come from the lower middle class background in the Khan Market area of New Delhi. He is the founder of an NGO called Manzil which aims to be a lively learning space that exposes young minds to many different enriching experiences. He is an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad and has worked in the corporate sector in Canada for about a year. He returned to pursue a hands-on course in Environment Education from CEE, Ahmedabad. Ravi was then involved with Trees for Life (later HIMCON), an NGO working with rural Himalayan communities. He is a board member of Jansamarth, an NGO working in remote Himalayan villages for generating electricity through micro-hydro power plants for lighting and livelihoods. Some of his main interests are education, environment and alternative economics.
Sandip Naik
is the State Coordinator of The Hunger Project in Madhya Pradesh. Sandeep was deeply engaged with Eklavya for over 10 years and has also been the Principal of Vindhyachal Academy and The Army School. He later established an Adolescent Resource Centre with the help of CEDPA and UNFPA. He has written a manual entitled ‘Adolescent Reproductive & Sexual Health for out-of-school adolescents’ in Madhya Pradesh and is currently involved in educating young people, especially adolescent girls on principles of democracy and their participation in Panchayati Raj institutions. He has also published articles on development issues and likes writing short stories.
Sonam Wangchuk
is currently working as an advisor for various GOs and INGOs in Nepal. He is from Ladakh and an engineer by background. In 1988, Sonam with other colleagues, formed the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). Sonam has worked very deeply to create sustainable solutions to strengthen the system of elementary education which was adopted by the Ladakh Hill CounciI. He has been on the National Governing Council of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in the MHRD. An Ashoka Fellow, Sonam has also worked extensively in the field of alternative energy resources and in particular supported innovations on building solar heated schools and homes in the high Himalayas.
Vartika Jaini
completed her post graduation in rural management from IIRMA. She has been in charge of shaping the youth and civil society as well as the microfinance portfolio of The Sir Ratan Tata Trust over the past 7 years. She is also working part-time with MITTRA, a livelihood focussed organization in Maharashtra.
Nanni Singh
is the Executive Director and founder member of Youthreach since its inception in 1997. Born and raised in Chandigarh, she began her involvement with the community at the age of 18 by founding a small non-profit organisation called Sahayak. Giving up a career in design, she was motivated by the possibility of building bridges between communities, people and issues. She has initiated new projects such as Youthreach Spirit that explores the relationship between the inner self and outer social reality, through literature, mysticism, spiritual wisdom and culture. She has deepened the Environment Programme within Youthreach by editing and producing the journal, 'Help Delhi Breathe and editing a book titled 'If I Were Rain'.
Avinash Kumar
has done his Ph.D. in Modern History from JNU, N.Delhi and taught at a university for a few years and also worked at the Centre for the Study of Developing Society before moving into development sector with Oxfam. He was associated with its Conflict and Peace Building Programme in Gujarat and Rajasthan undertaken in the wake of mass violence of 2002 and later the Gender Programme. He has also been associated with the development of Peace Studies curricullum in collaboration with various acdemic and activist organisations. Currently, he is the Essential Services Policy Advisor, South Asia for Oxfam and is based in Delhi.
Gagan Sethi
Executive Secretary of Janvikas since 1987 and Managing Trustee since 1997, has been involved in initiating and co-ordinating Janvikas sponsored programmes. As an expert, he provides training, organisational development, project planning and evaluation support towards institution building to various NGOs, government programs and funding agencies in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India. In the course of his career, he has designed and conducted over 400 training programs related to the following issues: Social Forestry Co-operatives, Ecology related grassroots programs, Organization of Schedule Castes and Tribes, Legal Awareness, Lobbying and Advocacy work, Youth & Women and Development and Training of Trainers for support organizations. Mr. Sethi has also consulted on Curriculum Development and Long Term Training Program in Gender for Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation and Diploma in Human Rights for Centre for Social Justice. Gagan Sethi has a Masters degree in social work from M S university of Baroda.