Women’s right to live with Dignity and Freedom

About Us

Sanhita, a Gender Resource Centre with its organic roots in the Indian Women’s Movement is committed towards an overall vision of gender justice and gender equity. Sanhita focuses on mainstreaming gender concerns by promoting institutional accountability and systemic reforms. Sanhita works with an advocacy and empowerment approach through research, campaign, training & capacity building and knowledge creation.

 

Sanhita’s beginning was located in collaborative efforts between women empowerment champions and development practitioners that marked the preparatory processes in West Bengal, for the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995. Sanhita was formally established in 1996 as a non profit Charitable Trust with the conviction that information as a tool can facilitate women’s capacities and empower them to become agents of change. This belief is further rooted in the vision of a gender just society, a society in which women’s right to live with dignity and freedom from violence is fulfilled. Sanhita connects to issues of rights discriminations that affect other disadvantaged communities on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, mental health or disability status.

Board Members

Soma Sen Gupta

Founder & Managing Trustee

An Ashoka Fellow and a professional with over 30 years of experience in the development sector, especially in the areas of gender mainstreaming, gender audit, publishing, training, and institutional capacity building related to issues such as gender equality, sexual harassment at workplace, sexual &reproductive health, urban poverty, etc. Experience includes working at policy, statutory & grant making levels both in the eastern region and nationally. She has experiences in direct implementation of development projects in both rural & urban areas of West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand. Soma has been the external member in a number of Internal committees across work sectors. Soma is also the co-founder of Sanlaap, a women’s rights organisation.

Sreela Das Gupta

Trustee

With an MPhil in Population Studies, Sreela has worked for over two decades in the development sector, focusing on human rights issues related to gender, social inclusion and public health. Sreela has worked both with rural communities as well as with international agencies including CARE, International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) among others. She has experiences in research, program implementation and policy formulation. Sreela Das Gupta is a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow in 2000-2001 funded by the US Congress. Presently Sreela Das Gupta is Associate Vice President and Head of Diversity and Inclusion at TATA Consultancy Services, Business Process Services.

Rajashi Mukherjee

Trustee

Rajashi is a senior PMEL (Planning Monitoring Evaluation & Learning) specialist with over 30 years of experience in the development sector. She is specialised in social research and social evaluations. Rajashi has extensive experience in setting up data collection and monitoring systems and has worked with country governments and multilateral organisations like UNICEF, DFID, World Bank, ADB etc. She was the Country Director of Water for People between 2005 and 2010. The focus of her work has been wide-ranging including, WASH service and governance, institutional capacity building, gender audits, income generation and agri-income estimation, education and school programmes, civil society and advocacy, child health issues and more. Rajashi has work experience in countries like India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Canada, USA, Central America, Fiji, Kenya and Uganda.

Team

Sirsha Gupta

Research & Training Associate

Sirsha has been working in the areas of gender mainstreaming related to issues such as reproductive & sexual health and rights and sexual harassment at workplace for over a decade and half. She is a post graduate in Clinical Nutrition. She has worked in the PMEL (Planning Monitoring Evaluation & Learning) Cell of government Flagship Program. In Sanhita, she has been leading the core initiative of ‘creating safe workspaces for women’ in the unorganised sector through advocacy, designing training module, facilitating training sessions and developing IEC Materials. She represents Sanhita as External Member in number of Internal Committees across work sectors.

Dora Saha

Research & Training Associate

With an MPhil in Gender Economics, Dora has been working for almost two decades in the field of research, planning and handling MIS in social sector projects. During her tenure at the National Dairy Development Board (2003-2021), she had intensely worked on dairy development projects across different parts of the country for the economic upliftment of the rural poor, especially the rural women. She has the experience of monitoring and evaluation of projects, most important being the World Bank Funded National Dairy Plan-I of the Govt. of India. She had conducted research studies in the rural areas of different Indian states. Dora had worked as a Data Analysis Consultant with 3dmdataworks, Dynamic Vision (Kabul, Afghanistan). She is presently working with Sanhita as a Research & Training Associate.

Sarika Singh

Accounts Officer

With a degree in Accounts and Finance from University of Calcutta,Sarika has been working for over two decades in the Development Sector. She has experience in accounts, finance, compliances and associated laws.

Srividhya Sainathan

Research & Training Associate

Srividhya is a Post Graduate in Biochemistry and Sociology with 22 years of experience in the development sector. She has experience in spearheading the project on Reproductive & Child Health funded by UNFPA in India. She has worked as a member of the monitoring and documentation team of Maternal & Child Health Project of CARE India in West Bengal. She has been conducting social researches, evaluations, feasibility studies and process documentation on diverse social themes. Srividhya has worked with National and International NGOs like CARITAS Germany, CARITAS India, WeltHungerHilfe, Save the Children, CINI/Child Hope UK and Deaf Child Worldwide. She has been associated with Sanhita since 2017 for the project on sexual harassment of women at workplace.

Julie Saha

Training Assistant

Julie has been working for the rights of transgender and associated with Pratyay Gender Trust for the cause. She never looked back and always fought for her own rights as well as for the entire community at large. She worked as an Outreach Worker in the remote areas of UP & Bihar to create awareness on prevention and control of HIV-Aids among the transwomen. Since 2013 she has been working with Sanhita asTraining Assistant. Over the years she became an asset for the organisation.

Our Present Supporters

  • Oak Foundation

  • Paul Hamlyn Foundation

  • Rukmani Gopalan Gitanjali Krishnan Trust

Those who supported us in the Past

  • Global Fund for Women

  • Ford Foundation

  • UNIFEM, South Asia (Delhi)

  • Sir Dorabji Tata Trust

  • International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW)

  • Fund for Global Human Rights

  • and others

Lets Join Us for women’s right to live