Professional Experience:
I seek to continue my career as a development practitioner, building on my experience as a project coordinator for a Hyderabad-based NGO called Yakshi. I took on multiple roles and responsibilities during my time with the organisation. These include helping conduct workshops that equip our fellows- young Adivasi and Dalit women from rural parts of AP and Telangana - with an understanding of their rights and build perspectives based on the values of the Constitution of India. I helped design, facilitate, and document these workshops with the objective of turning the participants into young leaders of their communities.
During my time at Yakshi, I interacted with donors to design, monitor and evaluate projects’ progress and outcomes. I travelled extensively to strengthen our association with local communities, understand the on-ground issues, and collectively develop solutions. I created internal policy documents regarding welfare schemes and made them accessible to the Dalit and Adivasi Communities. I also helped conduct workshops that created livelihood opportunities for these communities.
I designed multiple income-generating verticals and a concrete plan to make Yakshi a self-sustainable NGO.
I also developed an extensive strategy to archive the work done by Yakshi and its achievements over the past four decades.
I also had the chance to interact with government officials and other NGOs, which helped me understand the functions and challenges of social work in general and NGOs in particular. More importantly, my experience helped me understand the realities, aspirations, issues, and needs of the most marginalised communities. Having had a thorough education on the theoretical aspects of development studies and public policy, I want to continue working with marginalised communities to identify the challenges that stunt their (upward) social mobility and find relevant solutions collectively.
Before my most recent academic pursuits, I worked for over two years as a reporter covering the government debt market, the call market, the Reserve Bank of India, the digital payment ecosystem, and the telecom and e-commerce sectors. I also reported on banks' financial results and conducted interviews with leading bankers, economists, and Government Officials.