SAMYAK vision and objectives are greatly influenced by feminist theories and practices. SAMYAK’s worldview is necessarily drawn from the feminist learning.
| Dr. Shirisha Sathe | President | Dr. Shirisha Sathe is a senior practicing psychologist and has been associated with many NGOs in Pune. She also teaches psychology in SNDT university. She has a long experience of working with men and women in individual counselling settings. Informed thoroughly theoretically, Dr. Sathe is involved in capacity building of various civil society groups in the field of gender, violence against women, understanding survivors and culprits of violence against women etc. |
| Anand Pawar | Vice-President | Anand Pawar has been working in development sector since 1997 and has experience in health, development, gender and sexuality. He derives his background from Social Work education and is experienced in management of developmental programmes. |
| Shakuntala Bhalerao | Secretary | Shakuntala Bhalerao is an activist in the area of violence against women and has been advocating issues of violence against women as public health issue. She has worked with various women’s organizations. |
| Archana More | Treasurer | Archana More draws her background from activism in the area of literacy and has been associated with women’s organisation and working on the issues of gender and violence against women. Active in social field since more than a decade, she has completed her education in law from Indian Law Society’s law college, Pune. She worked with MASUM, a renowned women’s organization in Pune for over a decade and has a book and many articles to her credit on violence against women. |
| Padma Deostholi | Member | Padma Deosthali is active in development field from more than two decades. She draws her background from the area of development communication, gender, health and violence against women. Her major contribution is training public health care service providers and setting up Dilasa center in a public hospital of Mumbai Municipal Corporation to address issues of VAW as public a public health issue. She worked with CEHAT, an NGO based in Mumbai for over a decade. Presently, she is pursuing her PhD from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. |
| Pritam Thokade | Member | Pritam Thokade is a sensitive trader and an active person in social and cultural field in one of the smaller towns of Maharashtra. Based in Kurduwadi, district Solapur, he has been active in generating social awareness in rural parts of Solapur district. He draws his background from commerce education and is involved voluntarily in promoting small-scale income generating activities with rural youth. |
| Anita Pagare | Member | Anita Pagare is a feminist activist in the State of Maharashtra. Based in Nasik, she works with young population through an initiative called ‘Maitra Karavan’, a youth lead social justice movement engaging with young men and women on college campuses. Anita has extensive experience in gender training and intersectionality, especially connecting issues of gender with caste, class and religion. She has been at the forefront of Dalit women’s movement. She also has vast experience on working with women survivors of domestic violence. |
