Team

  • Knowledge Management
  • HR
  • Finance & Administration
  • Programme Team
  • Senior Management Team
  • Executive Director

Knowledge Management

Alok Vajpeyi
Lead - Core Grants & Knowledge Management

Alok is an experienced Development Professional, M&E Specialist and Researcher with progressive experience in evidence based development. Alok has worked with national and international organizations and has specialization in evaluation design, planning, implementation, and use in multiple contexts and domains. Alok was member of Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group (PME WG) for 2016-18. Alok has led several international and national level research studies, reviews and evaluations. Alok was actively involved in drafting of revised State Population Policy in Uttar Pradesh in 2016 and National ICT in Education policy for Ministry of HRD, GOI in 2007. He has also led the process of Bihar Population Policy Development in collaboration with State Health Society, Bihar in late 2019.

 
Sanghamitra Singh
Lead - Policy & Programmes

Sanghamitra Singh is a trained health scientist, writer and public health researcher who straddles multiple roles at Population Foundation of India. As the lead, policy and programmes, she provides strategic oversight to all programmes, manages organizational partnerships with key stakeholders, and oversees the development and dissemination of the Foundation’s research and literature. She is a print and digital commentator on issues pertaining to the health and well-being of women and young people, with several opinion editorials, interviews and podcasts to her credit.

In a career spanning a decade, Sanghamitra has been previously associated with the George Washington University, Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health. She has a PhD in Biological Sciences from the George Washington University. She is a Commission Fellow at the Lancet Citizen’s Commission for Reimagining India’s health System and Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Development Policy and Practice. In 2022, Sanghamitra was selected to be a part of the inaugural India cohort of WomenLift Health’s India Leadership journey.

Ritesh Laddha
Senior Specialist - Monitoring & Evaluation

Ritesh leads in developing the monitoring and evaluation frameworks of programmes and campaigns in Population Foundation of India. His work entails developing evidences based on the interventions for bringing policy level changes. He has more than nine years of experience in the development sector with Government and Non-government organizations. He has specialised skills in Results Based Management (RBM) and drafting Theory of Change (ToC). Prior to Population Foundation, Ritesh was part of the monitoring, evaluation and learning team at Oxfam India. He has a background in population science and public health management. He holds a Diploma in Population Science (DPS) from the International Institute for Population Science, Mumbai (IIPS-Mumbai) along with Post Graduate Diploma in Health Management (PGDHM) from Institute of Health Management Research, Jaipur (IIHMR-Jaipur).

 
Aishwarya Adhikari
Analyst - Knowledge Management

Aishwarya has more than half a decade worth of experience in the development sector with specialisation and interest in Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Rights. She joined the Population Foundation of India as an Analyst on Knowledge Management. She has worked comprehensively on issues of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, family planning, adolescent sexual health, child marriage, right to food and nutrition, as well as LGBTQIA+ rights. She has been involved in various capacity-building workshops/training modules with a diverse range of communities and groups across several states in India as a researcher.

Aishwarya has pursued a Master of Politics (with a specialisation in International Relations) from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and was an elected representative of JNU GSCASH. 

In her past stint as West Bengal Unit Director and Project Officer of a leading legal advocacy and human rights organisation based in New Delhi, she constantly liaised with network grassroots organisations, government officials, and law enforcement officials in securing the rights of the marginalised through several initiatives like the right to food, health, education, and housing, as well as securing the rights of differently-abled individuals, women, sexual minorities, etc.

Rakesh Chandra Juyal
Analyst - Knowledge Management

Rakesh is associated as Knowledge Management officer with Population Foundation of India and has more than twenty years of professional experience in knowledge management, digital library project management, library development, and digital archiving. He is specialized in knowledge management and information database designing. He deals with various open source software, customization, managing knowledge portal server, user’s support and administration. He has extensive experience on information system implementation and technical up-gradation in library transformation and knowledge management. Acquisition of resources, abstracting and indexing, online access of resource, data support, information sharing & dissemination at various level, and the institutional repository is also his strong area.

 

Knowledge Hub

Priyal Gulati
Consultant

Priyal is part of the Knowledge Hub and is responsible for managing the online program ARSH for You. She has experience writing news articles for children, NGO impact stories, and running a document delivery service.  Priyal is an avid reader and appreciates art in any form.

Priyal is stepping up to help educators understand the challenges associated with adolescent health and well-being.

 
Rizwan Shaikh
Specialist - Technology

Rizwan is a passionate technologist with over 10 years of training and experience in co-building innovative products, managing digital footprints for NGOs, political parties and start-ups. At Population Foundation, he manages the Knowledge Hub and leads the organization’s technological and digital initiatives. He is stepping up for people by building technology to maximize social impact.

Souvik Bandhapadhyay
Analyst – Youth & Adolescence

Souvik holds 6+ years of experience of social sector in education, youth engagement and health domains with several national and international organizations as well as Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, G.O.I. He worked extensively in program strategy development, operations, strengthening monitoring and evaluation and process reengineering. He joined Population Foundation of India as an Analyst for Youth and Adolescence and will be working closely on Knowledge Management and Programs team. He has a strong interest in public system & service and believe in developing platforms to transfer agencies to individual for their self-development to strengthen the system.

 

Human Resource

Ankit Sharma
Senior Manager (Human Resources)

Ankit Sharma is working as Senior Manager (Human Resources) with Population Foundation of India. He is a Management Graduate in Human Resources with professional career of 17 years with strong and wide exposure in HR areas including Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, Leadership Capability Development, ERP Implementation, Performance Management system and Business HR Operations.

In a career spanning over a decade, Ankit Sharma has been associated with various Corporates like Jindal Stainless Limited, Uflex Ltd and Uniparts India limited leading several Organisation Development (OD) interventions and specific HR based projects as part of key roles and responsibilities. During his professional journey he has also been associated with various Institutes (IIT, NIIT and B Schools) as Guest lecturer and speaker, Campus recruitments process and through various students organized forums.

Ankit Sharma in his offtime likes to play sports, travel and explore new places and also like to pen down diaries as part of stress buster

 

Finance

Raam Kumar
Chief Finance Officer, Delhi

Raam Kumar is Chief Financial Officer at Population Foundation of India. He manages Finance, Administration, Information Technology and Program Operations portfolio at Population Foundation. He comes with a strong 30 years of experience in the field of controlling and reviewing financial data, planning, monitoring internal controls, human resources, managing audits, administration and operations. He has worked across the public sector, private sector and development sector, with the last 20 years as Head of Finance. Prior to joining Population Foundation, he worked as Chief Finance Officer at Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust and before that as Director-Finance at Encyclopaedia Britannica India (Pvt.) Ltd. He is a Fellow Chartered Accountant and has done Masters in Business Administration.

 
Milan Rana
Associate Director - Finance

Mr. Milan Rana holds a Master degree in Commerce and Master degree in Business Administration with specialization in Finance. He has experience of over 16 years in the field of finance, accounting, budgeting, and statutory compliances. He has wide experience in Finalizations of Accounts, Budgeting and Budgetary controls, Internal controls, creating and managing financial systems, statutory compliance, Financial Audit, Management of FCRA Funds, Financial Analysis, Financial Assessment of NGOs, Fund management, Investment, Partners Management, Training to staff and partners on finance/admin./procurement, Closure of projects, HR Management, Procurement/Procurement audit, Management of agreements/contracts, Asset management, maintenance of organizational & project accounts, Preparation of financial documents for Management, donors and stakeholders and Management of funds.

Rachit Mathur
Manager - Finance

Rachit Mathur is a fellow Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor degree in Commerce. He has more than 8 years of experience working majorly in the development sector. He has wide experience in setting up of accounting systems, formulation of internal controls and regular review, fixing budgetary controls, formulating various MIS reporting structure, ensuring statutory compliances, consolidation of books of accounts, statutory audit support, fixed assets management and management consultancy.

 
Rajani Gupta
Senior Accounts Officer

Ms. Rajani Gupta is associated with Population Foundation as Senior Accounts Officer, she is a finance professional with over 17 years of experience in various areas of Accounts including Audit, Finance, Grants & Administration. Prior to Population Foundation, she has worked with Dharma Life Foundation, Ashoka University, Care India, Handicap International, MP Govt, ICICI Bank, Shivalik Motor Ltd and Perfect Industrial Agencies. Academically, she has done her M.B.A in Finance from Sikkim Manipal University and M.Com in Taxation from Barkat Ullah University.

Kalyan Kumar Das
Senior Accounts Officer

Kalyan is a commerce graduate from Calcutta University with specialisation in accountancy and he is Intermediate qualified from Institute of Cost Accountants of India. In professional domain, he has his expertise in Accounting, Taxations, Auditing, and Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) in social sector organizations for more than 13 years. His work experience encompasses in managing FC projects and Funds, statutory compliances, financial assessment of NGOs, management of sub-grants, general accounting, support in Internal and statutory audit. He has comprehensive experience in setting up of accounting systems, presenting Financial Statements, preparation of project reports, investment management, consolidation of books of accounts and preparation of Balance Sheet. He is providing support to sub partners to adhere with the grant agreement clauses and the financial reporting.

 
Mithlesh Yadav
Accounts Officer

Mithilesh works in the capacity of Accounts officer with Population Foundation. She has over 6 years of experience in the development sector and expertise in accounting and taxation.

Shyam Lal
Accounts and Admin Assistant

Shyam Lal is working as an Administrative & Accounts Assistant and takes care of Banking related work including follow-up with Seniors for timely completing of cheque transactions. Besides Shyam Lal also maintains record keeping of vouchers, Files etc., dispatch of Form 16/16As to various parties at the end of each quarter. During the time of Audit he will assist Accounts Department/Auditors with necessary records for smooth functioning of Audit.

 

Administration

Gagan Singhal
Manager - Administration

Gagan Singhal is an administration professional and holding Master’s Degree in Commerce. He has completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration with specialization in Human Resource Management. He has rich working experience in the field of office administration and management including good understanding of IT systems for offices. Prior to joining Population Foundation, he worked as Coordinator – Administration & IT at WaterAid India; as Correspondent Administration & Publication at Rotary International South Asia Office and as Administrative Assistant at National Polio Surveillance Project of World Health Organization. In all, he is having more than 16 years of working experience during which period he has developed a good understanding of the non-profit sector and is accustomed to working in a multi-cultural organisation environment.

 
Usha Nair
Officer - Front Office & Travel Desk
P Narayanan
Admin Assistant

With over 25 years of experience, P Narayanan works as an Administration Assistant with Population Foundation of India. He is the overall in-charge of office stationery and photocopier. In addition, he acts as a focal point for all important office files including health insurance, MCD, DDA, Governing Board, and other stock material, including important project files as well.

 
Provash Kumar Paul
Facility In Charge, Delhi

Provash Kumar Paul has been working with Population Foundation of India since the year 1991 as a Facility in-charge. He maintains the overall functioning of the building.

Kamlesh Kumar
Gardener-cum-Messenger

Kamlesh maintains the garden and horticulture of the entire office premises, and also provides messenger service, and supports routine admin activities. He has been working with Population Foundation of India for the last 27 years.

 
Vijaya Reddy
Driver

Vijaya Reddy has been associated with Population Foundation of India for the last 11 years and is deputed as a Driver to Executive Director’s office car.

Vijender Kumar
Office Boy

Vijender Kumar has been working with Population Foundation of India for the last 22 years. He ensures cleaning of the office premises and supports pantry function as well as day-to-day routine admin activities.

 
Sanjay Ekka
Office Boy, Delhi

Sanjay Ekka has been associated with Population Foundation of India for the last 24 years. He ensures cleaning of office premises and supports pantry function as well as day-to-day routine support activities.

Rajesh Surana
State Administration Officer, Rajasthan

Rajesh is State Admin Officer with Population Foundation of India. He has more than a decade’s experience in finance, accounts and administration. Rajesh holds a Post Graduation degree in Commerce and in Business Administration (MBA) with Finance and Marketing specialisations. His expertise lies in managing events, procurement process, vendor management, corporate accounting, taxation and budgeting.

 
Shailendra Singh Negi
System Administrator
Ajay Kumar
Office Assistant, Bihar
 
Mohan Singh
Office Assistant

Communications

Tejwinder Singh Anand
Lead - Technology & Communications

Tejwinder is a communication professional with over 17 years of work experience in the areas of brand strategy, marketing communication, and digital marketing. He has worked with brands on high impact campaigns across profit & non-profit sectors, BFSI and consumer electronics.

An engineering and management graduate, Tejwinder is stepping up for people by building communication to amplify the reach of initiatives and programmes at the Population Foundation of India.

 
Gopikrishnan Nair
Senior Analyst - Strategic Communications

Gopikrishnan Nair works with the Communications team at the Population Foundation of India. He has over 7 years of experience in public policy, digital marketing, strategic communications, and stakeholder engagement. He prior experience includes working with think tanks, corporates, start-ups, development agencies, and educational institutions. Outside of work, Gopi loves to read up on technological innovations, digital culture, behavioral science, design, and everything about the circular economy.

At the Population Foundation of India, Gopi hopes to advance and amplify the organization’s impact using effective communication, effectual usage of data, and strategic engagements.

Shweta Singh
Analyst - Technology and Communications

Shweta has a Master’s degree in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University and a Bachelor’s in English Literature from Delhi University. She comes with a diverse set of interests and experiences across the domains of content development, copywriting, social media marketing, and secondary research. She is primarily interested in subaltern issues, human rights, political theory, and popular culture.

At the Population Foundation of India, she hopes to explore tech-communication synergies to engender social and behavioral change in the youth regarding their sexual and reproductive health. Through her work, she hopes to build a more informed, sensitized, and empathetic populace.

 

Community Action and Accountability

Bijit Roy
Senior Lead - Programmes

Bijit Roy has over 20 years of experience in planning, implementation and management of large scale nutrition, maternal and child health and HIV/AIDS programmes.
At Population Foundation of India, Bijit leads community action and accountability vertical. as the Associate Director- Community Action and Accountability. Population Foundation of India hosts the Secretariat of the Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA), a committee constituted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to provide guidance and technical support to the state governments to strengthen and scale up community action processes initiatives, particularly related to accountability. The initiative covers 353 districts, 68 cities across 23 states of India. Bijit has previously worked at CARE in the Policy and Advocacy Unit at the India Country Office and managed implementation of the Reproductive and Child Health, Nutrition and HIV/AIDS (RACHNA) programme in the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Development from Xavier Institute of Social Service, Ranchi and a Bachelor degree in Political Science from the Banaras Hindu University.

 
Mitakshi
Analyst-Programme

Mitakshi is a Public Health professional having Master’s degree in Public health -Health Administration from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She has more than six years of work experience in the sphere of Family Planning and Adolescent Health. She has worked as a National Consultant with the Adolescent Health Division and Family Planning Division at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), GOI. She was involved with Ministry in developing guidelines of Model-Adolescent Friendly Health Guidelines (AFHCs) and she has been a Master trainer at the National level for providing RKSK training to Medical officers and counsellors. She has also been a team member of the Aspirational District Programme for Chhattisgarh, Annual Common Review Mission (CRM) and National Deworming Day. Prior to joining MOHFW, she worked with the State Health Department of Punjab as State Asst. Programme Officer- Reproductive Health. 

Pappu Kumar
Analyst - District implementation, Bihar

Pappu Kumar has been associated with Population Foundation of India since 2016 and looks after the Community Based Monitoring of Health Services program as District Program Officer-Nawada Bihar. Presently as DPO, he does district-level advocacy and coordination with the government apart from providing technical support to partner organizations of CBMS intervention. He is a development professional with a Masters of Art in Rural Development, from Indira Gandhi National Open University and has intensive working experience of 14 years in the development sector. He is stepping up for people by amplifying family planning and reproductive health services from the health departments across the Nawada to change people’s lives in the community.

 
Ritu Singh
Analyst - District implementation, Bihar

Ritu Singh is a development professional. She is having 10 years of progressively responsible experience in program implementation, social mobilization, outreach experiences for strengthening better health services, advocacy, holistic development of adolescents and youth in their community.
At Population Foundation of India, she is associated in the capacity of District Program Officer-Darbhanga. She coordinates with District Health Society-Darbhanga for implementation and scaling up Community Action for Health (CAH) program. She also doing advocacy with district-level officials for strengthening of Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committees (VHSNC) and improvement of family planning services in the district. Capacity building of partners and motivating the community for health entitlements, informed rights is part of the contribution in bringing changes in the life of people.

Daman Ahuja
Senior Specialist - Community Action & Capacity Building

Daman Ahuja has 27 years of experience in the development sector in conceptualizing, planning and execution of the Reproductive and Child Health, HIV/AIDS, Community Processes and Child Labour at the grassroots, state and national levels. Mr Ahuja is an ardent speaker and a National trainer on Accountability of Health Issues. He has built the capacity of Government officials under National Health Mission across the country in his role at Population Foundation especially under Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA) –a project of MoHFW. Population Foundation hosts the Secretariat of AGCA. He received an award from the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, for excellence in coordinating the Red Ribbon Express initiative in 2010.

 
Smarajit Chakraborty
Senior Specialist - Govt. Relations and Community Action

Smarajit Chakraborty has over 27 years of experience primarily in the areas of public health management, partnership building, networking & policy advocacy, Urban Health, Community participation and Family Planning. He has earlier worked with Population Foundation’s Health of the Urban Poor Project (HUP), CARE India and in UNICEF in the states of Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and Sikkim. Smarajit has also worked as Program Manager in CAH from March 2016 to November 2017 at AGCA Secretariat. He has served Jansankhya Sthirata Kosh(an autonomous body under MoHFW) as Team Leader from November 2017 to March 2019 in Delhi. He holds a post-graduate degree from XISS, Ranchi and a master’s degree in Population Studies from the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai. He is pursuing his PhD studies on “Urban Health” from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar.

Saurabh Raj
Senior Specialist - Community Action

Mr Saurabh Raj is a Public Health professional with more than eleven years of experience in different areas of the development sector, which include partnership management, programme implementation, advocacy with various stakeholders towards behavior change communication, and monitoring and evaluation. He has previously worked with different national and international organisations including Pathfinder International (NIP), Engender Health, India Red Cross Society, and Population Foundation of India. He has also supported Population Foundation for the implementation of Community Based Monitoring and Planning (CBMP) programme in Bihar. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Management, Jodhpur and a Bachelor degree in Botany from Magadh University, Bodh Gaya.

 
Seema Upadhyay
Senior Specialist - Community Action & Accountability

Seema Upadhyay has 17 years of experience in different sectors of development, which include community development, health, livelihoods and organizational development. She has worked with the government, NGOs, research institutions and donor agencies handling various aspects of programme management. Ms Upadhyay has previously worked with Seva Mandir, Udaipur on community development; Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur on issues around food security and agriculture; Social Policy Research Institute, Jaipur on tourism, water, power and agriculture issues; NRHM, Jaipur district as District Programme Manager; UNICEF Rajasthan documenting maternal and child health interventions; and ARAVALI, Jaipur on building institutional capacities for working with the poor. Ms Upadhyay holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), Gujarat and Bachelor’s degree in Botany from Delhi University.

Jolamma Jose
Analyst - Programme Implementation

She supports the Advisory Group on Communication Action (AGCA) Secretariat as a focal person. With over 24 years of experience in the development sector, her expertise centred around in developing programme reports; reviewing financial reports; editing documents and publications; managing website and administration

 
Shilpi
Specialist - Community Action

Shilpi works as a Specialist for Community Action and closely works with the district team in supervising the Community for Action Health programme in Bihar. She brings on board  a decade’s experience in the development sector with specialization and interest in Gender, Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, Community led Approaches, Migration and Child Protection.  

An experienced facilitator and a practitioner of participatory approaches, she has been involved in various training and capacity building initiatives with a diverse range of communities and groups as well as been part of several participatory research studies, participatory action research on community led processes and participatory assessments and evaluations. 

In her prior experience, she has been part of Participatory Action Research processes which have enabled engagement with rural communities in understanding their needs, aspirations and capacitating them towards Community Led mechanisms. She is backed Masters in Development Studies and bachelors in Mass Communication.   

Resource Mobilisation

Deepak Balan
Sr Manager - Resource Mobilisation

Deepak Balan leads the Resource Mobilization at the Population Foundation of India’s. His professional skills include developing fund-raising strategies and raising resources, such as writing grants, researching foundations and corporations, cultivating strong donor relationships for both annual fundraising and capital campaigns, and implementing new fundraising strategies.

Deepak hopes to generate long-term revenue for the Population Foundation of India by interacting with supporters and donors, philanthropists, foundations, and corporates.

 

Strategic Engagement

Irfan Khan
Associate Lead - Family Planning

Irfan Khan manages the Family Planning work at Population Foundation of India. He comes with over two decades of experience in the development sector and has worked in many areas including HIV, Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and Urban Health. He is a firm believer in people’s autonomy and right to choice. One of his most interesting assignments was setting up the Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics in 2016. He is stepping up for people by expanding contraceptive choices and changing the family planning discourse from commodity-centred to people-centred.

 
Liklaleima Ningombam
Consultant

Liklaleima is a professional social worker having an experience of working with young children, adolescents and youth around gender, health and education. She is associated with PFI as a Consultant for Adolescent Health and Wellbeing for CSE programmes in Manipur. Her works involve engaging with government and non-government stakeholders for the integration of adolescent health and well being education.

Richa Jairaj
Specialist - Programmes

Richa has more than 10 years of extensive experience in project management, advocacy, research and community engagement programmes. She has led several research projects on diverse thematic issues such as gender-based discrimination, sex selective abortion, sexual and reproductive health rights, safe and inclusive public spaces for women and girls, violence against women and co-authored articles. As a strong advocate of gender justice and human rights, Richa has travelled extensively and spearheaded projects in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Jharkhand while campaigning for rights based implementation of policies and programmes.

Prior to joining the development sector, she worked as a Business Development Executive for an MNC in Abu Dhabi.

She holds a Master’s degree in Women and Gender Studies from Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi and another Master’s in Business Administration from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

In her spare time, Richa loves to read and meditate.

 
Nilanshu Kumar
Senior Analyst - Programmes, Jharkhand

Nilanshu Kumar is a development professional with MBA in Human Resource Management. He is public health expert with over 12 years of progressively responsible experience in Planning, Training, Program implementation & evaluation of interventions on RMNCH+A, Family Planning, maternal, newborn, child health Nutrition and Water & Sanitation. Added skills include: knowledge of designing program on public health problems; development of partnership management, program quality, prepare training curriculum, resource management, growth linkages and management information system (MIS).

Sramana Sabnam
Specialist - RCFP

(They/ She)

Sramana is currently working at Population Foundation of India as Specialist, Family Planning. Sramana manages the ‘Realising Commitments to Family Planning’ (RCFP) program and is ambitiously exploring Sexual & Reproductive Health and Family Planning beyond the binaries while strengthening their Strategic Engagement.

Sramana has a Master’s degree in Gender Studies from Jamia Millia Islamia and a Bachelor’s in English Honours from Banaras Hindu University. In the past, Sramana has worked in the gender and equity vertical of policy, research, digitisation, STEM, secondary education, and POSH with government and non-government organisations.

 
Neeraj Gupta
Senior Analyst - Programmes, Rajasthan

Neeraj is associated with Population Foundation of India as State Programme Officer, he has nearly 19 years of experience in the Development sector in various capacities for Non-Government Organizations, the Private Sector, Government Departments and funding agencies. He holds a wide experience in Communications including programme communications, managing media relations, organizing campaigns including digital media and developing video/audio and textual materials. Besides Communications, he has also worked in programs reaching out to grass root levels and establishing networks with diverse stakeholders in the process, thus giving him a holistic view of the development programs.

Balbeer Singh
Senior Analyst - Programmes, Uttar Pradesh

Balbeer Singh is a development professional with Master in Sociology along with more than 15 years of experience of planning, implementation of programme in different issues like- gender, adolescent development, family planning strengthening of government institutions, community process at grass root to district and state level including planning & implementation and Balbeer is also a state level trainer on health.

Balbeer has been associated with Population Foundation of India since October 2018 and has been working on improving governance and management of public health facilities. He is stepping up qualitative health service for people and communities, adolescent health through Rogi Kalyan Samiti across the Uttar Pradesh state to driving the change and want to work for community action for health. He has also previously worked with Parivartan, Sakhi Kendra and PHFI.

 

 
Monica Wahengbam
Associate Lead- Strategic Engagement

Monica comes with 17 years of working extensively on issues of family planning and adolescent health. She combines an excellent understanding of advocacy strategy with on-ground experience of working with government and civil society partners. At Population Foundation of India, Monica leads the Comprehensive Sexuality Education program which is a multi-state program that looks at empowering adolescents with access to comprehensive sexuality education. Monica also works closely with the other program team to provide strategic input.

Prior to joining Population Foundation of India, she worked at the India Country office of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and supported  in overseeing the population and reproductive health program in India. She also led the organizational development and effectiveness portfolio.

Parimal Chandra
Senior Specialist & State Head Bihar

Parimal Chandra a Senior Specialist and State Head of Bihar Team at Population Foundation of India and leads the operation of the Community for Action Health Programme. An experienced development professional with public health as the core area has almost two decades of experience in the sector. He has worked with several national and international organisations in the past PATH, UNICEF, CARE, Aga Khan Foundation and UNNATI.  

Parimal also brings in the diverse learning from his experience of working across four states- Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Jharkhand on components of Reproductive and Child Health (RCH), Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ARSH) Integrated Nutrition and Health program, Infant, and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Disaster response.   

He has authored several articles in eminent journals at national level and participated in several international and national workshops. His areas of expertise can be looked upon in leadership skills, project management, capacity building, behaviour change communication, partnership management and advocacy for positive contribution to organizational development.  

He holds a post graduate degree from XISS Ranchi and has completed one-year e-Public Health & Nutrition Certificate course from Indian Institute of Public Health, New Delhi. Parimal has also undertaken several certificate courses on various public health and nutrition subjects to add value to his experience and knowledge. 

 
Abhishek Pathak
Analyst - Programmes, Uttar Pradesh

Abhishek Pathak is working as the Program Officer – Matrix Program, Uttar Pradesh. He actively engages with and reaches out to communities through capacity-building programs for adolescents, health staff and frontline workers. He also provides technical support to RKSK on quality services, by engaging with people through sensitisation and advocacy programs with education, NYK and convergence departments. Abhishek also coordinates for state/district advocacy initiatives and ensures planning, implementation and execution of the project.

Abhishek is a public health professional with over 14 years of experience in Family Planning and Advocacy, Training and Capacity Building, Nutrition, Media Engagement and Media Management, Political Advocacy, RMNCH+A, RCH Portal, Project Management and Strategic Planning, HMIS, Monitoring and Evaluation, Tuberculosis, Finance, Convergence with Panchayti Raj, Health, ICDS, Education, Food and Supply department and Rural development.

Shilpa Nair
Associate Lead & State Head, Uttar Pradesh

Shilpa Nair leads Population Foundation of India’s work on Gender, Family Planning, Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health, Community Action and Behavior Change Communication in the State of Uttar Pradesh. She works closely with government, policymakers, media, NGOs, civil society networks and communities to highlight, prioritize and improve the health and wellbeing of women, children and adolescents. In a career spanning over two and half decades, Shilpa has led the implementation of several large-scale projects providing technical assistance to government institutions, strengthening civil society, mobilizing communities, building champions and catalyzing on-ground implementation of health interventions and services. A member of key consultative forums of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, prior to joining Population Foundation, Shilpa has held leadership roles with Global Health Strategies (GHS), Family Health International (FHI 360), CARE International, Program for Appropriate Technologies In Health (PATH), State Innovations in Family Planning Services Project Agency (SIFPSA) and Family Planning Association of India in projects funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

 
Priyamvada Singh
Associate Lead & State Head, Rajasthan

Priyamvada is a development professional with over three decades of experience in education, health, gender, women’s empowerment and rights. She has implemented large-scale innovative programmes for marginalized populations while engaging with the government at the state and national levels. She has a Ph.D. in social sciences from the University of Rajasthan and an MBA (general management) from Delta International University, USA. She is also a registered Advocate with Rajasthan High Court. She has received several awards, including one at the ‘Every Footstep Counts Film Competition-2016’ at the International AIDS Conference in South Africa.

She has worked for reputed organizations such as the Center for Global Public Health (CGPH),  the University of Manitoba (UM), CARE-India, and Lok Jumbish. She has authored /co-authored a range of publications on HIV-AIDS and education and Life- Skills issues.  Before joining Population Foundation of India, she was with IPE Global as an Advisor- Policy and Outreach for their CIFF-funded projects in Rajasthan.

Bidhayak Majumdar
State Administrative Officer

Bidhayak Majumdar has over 28 years of experience in Development Sector primarily in the areas of project administration functions including procurement and contract management. He has worked with several national and international organization in the past IPE Global Limited, British High Commission, DFID India and CRY-Child Rights & You. Bidhayak has done his Bachelor of Arts (B.A) in Sociology from Sikkim Manipal University besides certification courses in Contract Management & Logistics for Health Commodities.

 

Senior Management Team

Bijit Roy
Senior Lead - Programmes

Bijit Roy has over 20 years of experience in planning, implementation and management of large scale nutrition, maternal and child health and HIV/AIDS programmes.
At Population Foundation of India, Bijit leads community action and accountability vertical. as the Associate Director- Community Action and Accountability. Population Foundation of India hosts the Secretariat of the Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA), a committee constituted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to provide guidance and technical support to the state governments to strengthen and scale up community action processes initiatives, particularly related to accountability. The initiative covers 353 districts, 68 cities across 23 states of India. Bijit has previously worked at CARE in the Policy and Advocacy Unit at the India Country Office and managed implementation of the Reproductive and Child Health, Nutrition and HIV/AIDS (RACHNA) programme in the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Development from Xavier Institute of Social Service, Ranchi and a Bachelor degree in Political Science from the Banaras Hindu University.

 
Raam Kumar
Chief Finance Officer, Delhi

Raam Kumar is Chief Financial Officer at Population Foundation of India. He manages Finance, Administration, Information Technology and Program Operations portfolio at Population Foundation. He comes with a strong 30 years of experience in the field of controlling and reviewing financial data, planning, monitoring internal controls, human resources, managing audits, administration and operations. He has worked across the public sector, private sector and development sector, with the last 20 years as Head of Finance. Prior to joining Population Foundation, he worked as Chief Finance Officer at Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust and before that as Director-Finance at Encyclopaedia Britannica India (Pvt.) Ltd. He is a Fellow Chartered Accountant and has done Masters in Business Administration.

Alok Vajpeyi
Lead - Core Grants & Knowledge Management

Alok is an experienced Development Professional, M&E Specialist and Researcher with progressive experience in evidence based development. Alok has worked with national and international organizations and has specialization in evaluation design, planning, implementation, and use in multiple contexts and domains. Alok was member of Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group (PME WG) for 2016-18. Alok has led several international and national level research studies, reviews and evaluations. Alok was actively involved in drafting of revised State Population Policy in Uttar Pradesh in 2016 and National ICT in Education policy for Ministry of HRD, GOI in 2007. He has also led the process of Bihar Population Policy Development in collaboration with State Health Society, Bihar in late 2019.

 
Sanghamitra Singh
Lead - Policy & Programmes

Sanghamitra Singh is a trained health scientist, writer and public health researcher who straddles multiple roles at Population Foundation of India. As the lead, policy and programmes, she provides strategic oversight to all programmes, manages organizational partnerships with key stakeholders, and oversees the development and dissemination of the Foundation’s research and literature. She is a print and digital commentator on issues pertaining to the health and well-being of women and young people, with several opinion editorials, interviews and podcasts to her credit.

In a career spanning a decade, Sanghamitra has been previously associated with the George Washington University, Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health. She has a PhD in Biological Sciences from the George Washington University. She is a Commission Fellow at the Lancet Citizen’s Commission for Reimagining India’s health System and Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Development Policy and Practice. In 2022, Sanghamitra was selected to be a part of the inaugural India cohort of WomenLift Health’s India Leadership journey.

Executive Director

Ms Poonam Muttreja
Executive Director, Population Foundation of India

Ms Poonam Muttreja is Executive Director of Population Foundation of India. She has over 40 years of experience in development – setting up and heading NGOs, contributing to policy and advocacy, creatively building a field, improving organisational capacity, strengthening communications for social good, promoting innovations and scaling up pilots, making grants, teaching, advising, and mentoring.
Ms Muttreja has co-conceived the popular, transmedia initiative, Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon – (I, A Woman, Can Achieve Anything) launched by Population Foundation in 2014. In its third season, the programme has introduced an Artificial Intelligence Intelligence-powered chatbot – SnehAI, a first-of-its-kind behaviour change communication initiative in India.