Core Team - Young Leaders for Active Citizenship

Rohit Kumar – Co-founder

Rohit co-founded YLAC in 2016, and its sister concern TQH Consulting in 2017, to strengthen the governance ecosystem in India through public policy research, advocacy and citizen engagement. Rohit’s work in policy cuts across sectors, including regulation of new business models, emerging issues in tech policy, digital public infrastructure and payments. An alumnus of Harvard Kennedy School of Government and IIT Bombay, he previously served as the Head of Policy and Research at the office of Mr. Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, Member of Parliament (MP) in Lok Sabha.Read complete profile

Before working with Mr. Panda, Rohit spent several years at PRS Legislative Research, the Indian think-tank that supports MPs across party lines with research on legislative and policy issues. At PRS, he also developed ‘MP Track’, the tool that is widely used by the media and civil society to track engagement of MPs in Parliament. Previously, Rohit was a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) at their Mumbai office. He is a 2013 IPRYLI (India-Pakistan Regional Young Leaders Initiative) fellow with the Asia Society.

Aparajita Bharti – Co-founder

Aparajita co-founded YLAC in 2016. She is also the Founding Partner at TQH – a public policy research and communications consulting firm that was set up in 2017. Before starting these two organisations, Aparajita was Manager, Corporate Affairs and Communications at Snapdeal where she was responsible for managing media messaging while engaging with policy and legislative issues that affect the digital commerce sector. Aparajita holds a MPP degree from Oxford University and her work cuts across the domains of gender, tech policy and integrity of India’s democratic institutions.Read complete profile

Aparajita started her career in public policy as a Legislative Assistant to Mr. N.K. Singh, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and was one of the four Indians selected for the Faiths Act Fellowship by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation in 2011. In her undergraduate years at the College of Business Studies, Delhi University, Aparajita was instrumental in starting ‘Manthan’ – an annual congregation of street theatre societies to spread social awareness. Manthan has now expanded to several towns and cities across India. She is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper from the New Delhi hub.

Nipun Malhotra – Director, Policy & Programs | Lead, Disability Rights & Inclusion

Nipun leads the inclusion vertical at YLAC. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of the Nipman Foundation, a leading organization advocating for the rights and inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). Through his advocacy, he has spearheaded initiatives such as wheelchair accessibility filters on Zomato and audits of public infrastructure for accessibility. He successfully challenged the Delhi government in the Supreme Court, securing a landmark judgment on accessible public transport. His petition also led to historic guidelines on the portrayal of PwDs in visual media.Read complete profile

As the founder of Wheels for Life, a crowdsourcing platform connecting wheelchair donors with recipients across 25 states, he has transformed thousands of lives. Nipun is also the Founder Chair of the FICCI D&I Working Group on Empowering PwDs. An alumnus of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi School of Economics, and the Indian School of Business, Nipun is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and has been recognized with the Indian Red Cross Society’s Social Entrepreneur Award. His writings on disability rights have appeared in leading publications like The Hindu, Indian Express, and The Print. Born with Arthrogryposis, Nipun is a passionate advocate for inclusion and accessibility in India.

Shipra Baduni – Associate Director, Citizen Engagement

Shipra is an alumna of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. With a Master’s degree in social work, her specialization is women-centred practices. She has extensive grassroot experience working with rural youth on education projects. Her interest areas lie within the intersection of gender and tech-education. Being a staunch feminist, she believes in bringing a gendered lens to any work she pursues.Read complete profile

During her previous experiences, she has worked with adolescent girls of the Bedia community, who were at risk of being forced into sex work. She worked on an education model to provide an alternative safe space for these girls to pursue their dreams. She has also worked with rural youth on a governance based education model where she has led and designed programs with the objective of involving youth in local governance. During her free time she thoroughly enjoys writing poetry and learning new forms of dance.

Sonakshi Chaudhry – Associate Director, Policy & Partnerships | Chief of Staff

Sonakshi is a communications and gender policy specialist with over 8 years of experience building partnerships and working across the spectrum of think tanks, NGOs, publications, and government. As a Chevening scholar, Sonakshi pursued an MA in Gender, Violence and Conflict at the University of Sussex, and she also holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St. Stephen’s College.Read complete profile

With a particular focus on women’s economic empowerment through her work, Sonakshi has advised several organisations on issues such as preventing sexual harassment and encouraging gender equity in workplaces. She was previously Research and Editorial Lead for ‘Women in Labour’ —a podcast examining India’s declining female labour force participation rate, and a Consultant in the Economic Adviser’s Bureau at the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development where she worked on the implementation of a national scheme for women in distress. Sonakshi is also a Trustee at the Woman of the Elements Trust, which provides free legal aid to women and child victims of domestic violence. She has previously been a Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Hub New Delhi and a delegate at the 2020 edition of the Australia India Youth Dialogue— a leading track II dialogue.

Arun Sudarsan – Manager, Public Policy

Arun is an Economics graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the National University of Singapore. At NITI Aayog, he played a key role in operationalising the Aspirational Districts Programme’s data collection and ranking systems. Later, at CivicDataLab, he led the expansion of the Open Budgets India platform, the largest repository of public finance information in India.Read complete profile

Arun’s key interests include, but not limited to, Indian public finance, social sector schemes, and development policy. He is a keen observer of the developments in India’s political economy, with interest across a wide gamut of areas such as law and justice, technology, and electoral politics. He’s also a passionate educator, a part-time amateur singer, and loves cooking. His favourite quote: “no man-made system is immune to human deceit”.

Venika Menon – Lead, Civic Policy & Partnerships

Venika is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in New York, where she served as the Senior Class President on the Board of Trustees, and has worked internationally in various capacities. Starting her career in New York at Perry Davis Associates, a fundraising consultancy, she later evaluated a Madhya Pradesh-based project for the World Bank and led donor communications at Challenging Heights, an anti-child trafficking organisation, in Ghana. Most recently, she worked with Teach For India – Mumbai, leading collaborations with the government, TFI alumni, and ecosystem partners.Read complete profile

Through this work, she has developed a versatile skill set in project implementation, account management, research, fundraising, and communications. Her thematic areas of interest are gender, education, inclusion and sustainable cities. You can always come to her to find out about the best restaurants in town.

Priyank Badola – Senior Consultant, Programs

Priyank completed his MSc in Outdoor Education from the Moray House School of Education at the University of Edinburgh. After working in the consumer banking group with DBS Bank, he followed his passion to work as an outdoor educator and a mountain guide in India, Nepal, U.S., and Scotland. He worked with school and college students in the non-formal education sector by leading multiday backpacking trips and teaching them about landscape, ecology, and environmental education while supporting their personal-social development.Read complete profile

Priyank is also associated with Seeds of Peace, a peace-building and leadership development organization in the U.S., where he works on interfaith dialogue programs in the South Asian region. He is a wilderness-first responder, a geek about mountains, and a nature lover.

Himani Chouhan – Senior Officer, Programs

Himani is an alumna of the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. With a Masters degree in Public Policy, her core focus of work has been around education and child rights. During her tenure as a Teach For India Fellow, she taught forty elementary school students in a government school in Delhi and worked extensively on community participation in education as well as social and emotional learning of children.Read complete profile

Through her internships with a diverse range of organizations like the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Government of Odisha, KPMG India, and Centre for Civil Society, she learnt the ropes of various facets of policymaking, program designing, and implementation. Having widely explored various forms of theatre, she wishes to combine her love for art and academia to innovate solutions for real world problems.

Jayashankar Vengathattil – Senior Officer, Strategy & New Initiatives

Jayashankar graduated with an MA in Development Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and a BCom from Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru before that. Most recently, he was at the Central Office of Samagra, a governance consultancy firm, assisting in organisation building and designing programs. At Samagra, he was also part of the team that worked to improve the public education system in Himachal Pradesh. Previously, Jayashankar has had professional stints at the municipal finance vertical at Janaagraha and the Assurance department of EY.Read complete profile

True to his diverse academic and professional experiences, he strives to be a jack of all trades and bring a multidisciplinary lens to his work. Outside of work, you may find him obsessing over random articles on the internet, reading and trying to write, improving his chess ratings, watching and dreaming about cinema, and talking about mental health.

Shubhra Jha – Senior Officer, Programs

Shubhra is a social worker by training and has worked with and for children for the past decade. Their journey in the development space began as a volunteer with Make a Difference, and they later worked in the space of intellectual disability with Jai Vakeel Foundation. They were previously associated with Pratham Education Foundation where they supported teams implementing school and community-based learning programs and scaling them through government partnerships.Read complete profile

Creating experiences that allow individuals to connect, reflect and engage as a group is what Shubhra hopes to do more of.

Ishita Bagchi – Officer, Programs

A public policy professional by training, Ishita graduated from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 2021. Earlier, she was working as a Research Associate at PROAct. She is a Gender Rights Advocate and a published writer with a keen interest in Economics and Literature. She runs a weekly newsletter and blog called “The Wannabe Economist”. The newsletter and blog focus on policy, politics, economics, gender, and academia. Her aim is to simplify and decode complex academic jargon and issues around gender.Read complete profile

Ishita has been a young speaker on multiple platforms including the South Asian Youth Summit organised by Youth Advocacy Nepal and ActionAid Nepal. She is also a NSDC certified community service facilitator.

Sohini Chakrabarti – Officer, Programs

Sohini holds a Master’s in International and Development Studies from the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID), specialising in gender, race and diversity. As the co-founder of Breaking Barriers, India’s first gay-straight alliance/intersectional feminist forum at the school level, she pioneered LGBTQ+ awareness programs from a young age. Her academic journey is enriched by professional roles such as Manager of Partnerships at a Delhi-based ed-tech start-up, and the India Fellow Social Leadership Program working on access to quality child-centric education at the rural grassroots.Read complete profile

Over the last decade, Sohini has acquired experience in sensitisation and advocacy, programmatic planning and implementation, and research, analysis and writing. This includes skills in facilitation, human-centred design and systems thinking. Her Master’s dissertation investigated the dynamic relationship between critical pedagogy and social transformation, and she envisions a world where inclusive dialogue and empowered action lead to sustained change. Sohini holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Sri Venkateswara College (Delhi University).

Utsav Tambi – Officer, Programs

Utsav envisions a world where the most capable individuals hold the highest positions of power. His journey in political consulting spans from conducting in-depth grassroots research in Bihar to leading assembly election campaigns in Goa and Rajasthan. A graduate of Shri Ram College of Commerce, he has also worked in management consulting, co-facilitating a visioning workshop for a leading venture capital firm in India. Previously, at TQH—YLAC’s sister concern—he contributed to research on financial inclusion and women’s economic empowerment.Read complete profile

Beyond work, he is a national basketball player, an amateur Vipassana meditator, and an avid explorer of new ideas.

Zakia Rafiqi – Officer, Programs & Policy Communications

Zakia is a multimedia and communications professional with a Master’s in Mass Communication from AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, and a background in Political Science. Her work bridges storytelling and social impact, focusing on education, advocacy for children, and marginalized communities. She has extensive experience working with organizations like UNICEF and ICRW, focusing on improving educational access for children with disabilities, mainstreaming education for minority communities, and creating systems to prevent school dropouts.Read complete profile

Zakia has also documented and led creative content development for narratives addressing gender stereotypes. She is an active volunteer with the Nous Network, where she advocates for the rights of marginalized groups in India and raises awareness about systemic oppression. Her passion lies in using media to amplify underrepresented voices and drive meaningful change. Outside of work, she enjoys connecting with people over a cup of chai, indulging in movies, and immersing herself in true crime thrillers.

Anjali – Associate, Programs

Anjali is a social worker who has been working in the areas of caste, labour and land rights, language, and climate justice for the past several years. They hold a masters degree in Environment and Development with a background in Anthropology & Sociology. As a co-creator of the Yugma Collective and the Project Amara, Anjali has experience hosting educational programs and awareness sessions with young people on gender, caste, menstrual health, and environmental advocacy.Read complete profile

Anjali has previously worked as an environmental policy researcher with organisations like Grantham Research Institute and Land Conflict Watch. They love exploring storytelling through filmmaking and journalism, and in their free time, they enjoy trekking, cooking, martial arts, and music.

Anvita Parmar – Associate, Programs

Anvita has a bachelor’s in sociology from Ambedkar University, Delhi. She previously worked as a Program Assistant at CREA, a feminist human rights organization, where she contributed to initiatives focused on gender rights and consent. Before her role at CREA, she worked with EMP Bindi International Association (formerly known as Barefoot College International) in Rajasthan, where she helped launch a health awareness campaign on IVF and developed educational modules for the Banjara community.Read complete profile

She is passionate about social upliftment, with a specific focus on women and children, and her work reflects a strong commitment to health and gender equity. Outside of work, she does jiu-jitsu, kickboxing and enjoys long walks with her dog.

Jaanvi Saraf – Associate, Programs

Jaanvi has previously worked as a LAMP Fellow in the Office of Smt. Diya Kumari where she provided legislative research assistance. She holds a Bachelor’s in Sociology from Ambedkar University, Delhi. She has previously worked with the Govt. of West Bengal in the Office of Shri Vivek Gupta, where she oversaw Policy Research and Strategic Communications. At this office, she conceptualised grassroots initiatives on menstrual health awareness, skill development for women, and improving dialogue between constituents and their elected representatives.Read complete profile

Jaanvi is especially interested in the intersection of policy, advocacy, education and minority affairs. In her leisure time, she enjoys cooking.

Karishma Kapoor – Admin Manager

Karishma is a B.Com. graduate from Delhi University. Prior to joining YLAC, she was associated with Fareportal India Pvt. Ltd. as a Team Lead in their Finance-Payroll department. Over the last few years, she has worked with various companies and managed their payroll processing, statutory compliance, settlements, validation of investment proofs and other activities related to TDS and payments. Read complete profile

At YLAC, her focus areas include establishing and maintaining finance and administrative systems. She also looks after logistics for program implementation.