Keynote speakers

Hon'ble Chairperson, National Commission for Women (NCW), New Delhi

Ms. Rekha Sharma assumed the charge of Chairperson, National Commission for Women on August 7, 2018. If one takes a closer look at her style of working, the two distinct virtues that define her are leadership spirit and relentless will to keep doing good for women in need. NCW is known for working round the clock for addressing women’s issues, in her leadership. She has been associated with the Commission as a member since August, 2015 and held the additional charge as Chairperson, NCW with effect from September 29, 2017 before becoming its Chairperson on August 7, 2018. She has constantly advocated for economic empowerment of women and has been organizing seminar around women-led entrepreneurship in collaboration with different universities with an aim to break gender stereotypes in the society.

NCW has been setting up new milestones under her leadership. Recently, the new helpline is launched by the Commission on July 27, 2021 for providing 24/7 support to women affected by violence through referral by linking them with appropriate authorities such as police, hospitals, District Legal Service Authority, psychological services etc.

Associate Professor in Gender and Religious Studies, School of Arts & Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Malaysia.

Sharon A. Bong is Associate Professor of Gender Studies at the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. She graduated with a Ph. D. in Religious Studies (2002) and M. A. in Women and Religion (1997), University of Lancaster, UK. She has authored Becoming queer and religious in Malaysia and Singapore (2020), The Tension Between Women’s Rights and Religions: The Case of Malaysia (2006) and edited Trauma, Memory and Transformation in Southeast Asia (2014) and Re-imagining Marriage and Family in Asia: Asian Christian Women’s Perspectives (2008). She is currently consultant to and former coordinator of the Ecclesia of Women in Asia, a forum writer for the Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church and member of the Concilium Board of Editors.

Topic of Keynote:

“Asian ecofeminist theologies”

Associate Professor, Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Soma Dey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of Dhaka. She obtained a Ph. D. in Gender & Development Studies (GDS) from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. She did M. Phil., M. Sc. & B. Sc. in Geography & Environment from the University of Dhaka. Dr. Dey started her career as a faculty member of Environmental Science at a private university of Bangladesh. Later, she joined the Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of Dhaka. She is interested in examining how the natural environment & gender relations are being reconstituted in contemporary societies through development interventions. She is also interested in the field of gender & migration. She has conducted her first academic research in marriage migration. Later she worked on the trafficking of women & children from Bangladesh. Recently, she has turned the focus on international migration and conducted joint research on the immigrant Bangladeshi community in Australia. She is also working on examining the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her areas of research interest include gender & environment, poverty and livelihoods, population dynamics, and indigenous society.

Topic of Keynote:

"Education & Women's Empowerment: Case Study of Bangladesh"

Associate Professor & Chairperson, School of Public Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Hyderabad.

Dr. Ipsita Sapra has been a development practitioner for more than a decade before moving into full-time academics in 2010. She has a Ph. D. in Social Sciences from TISS, Mumbai and her work involved understanding the livelihoods of young persons with disabilities in rural India. Ipsita is a recipient of Commonwealth and the British Chevening Scholarships, United Kingdom. She is the Faculty Coordinator, Research and Development at TISS, Hyderabad. She has written more than 200 blog articles on developmental issues. She has undertaken several gender training programmes for technical universities. Her research interests are disability and conditional cash transfer programmes.

Topic of Keynote:
"Gender Through the Lens of SDGs: What it captures, What it can't!"

Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi.

Sujith Koonan is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. He obtained his Ph.D. from the SOAS University in London. He also holds an M.Phil. in Public International Law from the Jawaharlal Nehru University and an LL.M. from the Cochin University of Science and Technology. He is Member of the Editorial Board of the Law, Environment and Development Journal (LEAD). His main areas of interest are environmental law, water and sanitation, natural resources law, human rights, international law and agro-biodiversity. He has published widely. Some of his more recent works include “Manual Scavenging in India” (Indian Law Review, 2021); “Research Handbook on Law, Environment and the Global South” (Edward Elgar, 2019); “Right to Sanitation in India– Critical Perspectives” (Oxford University Press, 2019).

Topic of Keynote:
"Water and sanitation through a gendered lens: a legal critique"

Assistant Professor & Faculty of Sociology and Education, School of Education Studies, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD), New Delhi.

Dr. Anandini Dar is the founder and co-convener of the Critical Childhoods and Youth Studies Collective (CCYSC) in India and serves as an Advisory Board Member of the Childism Institute, Rutgers University, USA. Her research interests include issues of everyday lives, cultures, rights, politics, and identities of young people in the context of migration, displacement and globalization. She has conducted a multi-sited ethnography with teenagers in the US and is currently working on a cross-disciplinary project examining place-making processes and well-being of children and families in two informal settlements in Delhi, India. Presently, she is a Faculty of Sociology and Education at the Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD), India. Her research cuts across disciplines of childhood studies, education, development studies, and feminist studies. She has worked in the NGO sector and academia across 3 continents (America, Australia and Asia). She has published many national and international reports, peer-reviewed journal articles. She is currently editing two book volumes on topics related to childhood, modernity, and development with Routledge India and UK. She is also the winner of the 2019 EU-ICSSR grant award on “Sustainability, Equity, Well-being and Cultural Connections.” Her keynote lecture will draw upon the research conducted as part of this award-winning project.

Topic of Keynote:
"Children, Development, and Well-Being"

Assistant Professor Sociology, IGNOU Delhi.

Tarushikha Sarvesh is currently working as Assistant Professor of Sociology at IGNOU in Delhi. She has served as Assistant Professor of Sociology in Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. She specialises in development sociology, gender studies, multiple marginalities and social exclusion. Currently she is directing an ICSSR (Indian Council of Social Science Research) funded major project on peoples’ lived experiences in the conflict zone of Kashmir with special reference to women and youth. She has been regularly contributing to various reputed journals and books. She also often writes in popular media platforms in India such as Newsclick, Firstpost, The Wire, The Print, The India Forum, The Indian Express, The Telegraph and News18.

Topic of Keynote:
"Women and Development: A perspective on Deliberative democracy and policy making"