Dr Sulakshana Nandi is from Chhattisgarh State in India, where she is the State Convener of the Public Health Resource Network, a national non-governmental network for research, advocacy and capacity building in public health.

Sulakshana trained as a social worker and was part of a cohort of Indian activists in the People’s Health Movement (PHM) who chose to do post-graduate training in public health at UWC, a link supported and encouraged by the late Professor David Sanders. Sulakshana completed both her Masters in Public Health (awarded cum laude) and PhD (awarded in 2020) at the SoPH. 

Over the past 20 years, Sulakshana has been a leader of non-governmental social mobilisations on issues of health, gender, food security and socio-economic rights in India. In 2006, she was a founding member of ‘Chaupal’ – a resource agency that has played a critical role in supporting community based organisations through research, capacity building and advocacy on issues of health, nutrition and gender in the tribal areas of Chhattisgarh. She also played a major part in the development of the globally recognised Mitanin (community health worker) programme in Chhattisgarh, providing key inputs into the design of training modules and supporting its implementation. The Mitanin Programme provided the template for the subsequent development of the nation-wide Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) CHW programme, and Sulakshana is currently a member of the ASHA’s national mentoring team.