Sudha has a Masters degree in Sociology from Mysore University; a diploma in community based rehabilitation of the disabled in India; diploma in Social Leadership and Rural Development from Searsolin Xavier University, Philippines and has competed an international course in Development Communication from International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), Philippines.
She has more than 20 years of experience in social action and development sector in India, which includes the areas of mobilization, capacity building, training, advocacy, organizational development, strategic planning and implementation. She has extensively worked with urban and rural NGOs working on the issues of differently abled, women, children, health & nutrition, education, environment, ecological agriculture, local governance in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Presently she is working as community outreach coordinator under the Right to Food Programme. She is passionate about the holistic empowerment of the marginalized rural and urban communities and action research in several dimensions of vulnerable people’s struggles, rights and responsibilities, peace and non-violence. She has been associated with several national and international civil society networks and people’s movements. She is advisory committee member of Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS) and Alliance for Responsible & Sustainable Societies (Alliance-Respons); scientific committee member of International Forum of Social & Solidarity Economy Entrepreneurs; International Gandhian Initiative for Non-violence and Peace (IGINP); member of South Asia Peace Alliance; South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy; People’s Movement for land, water and forest rights (Ekta Parishad); external member of Sexual Harassment Committee of Wildlife Conservation Society-India.
Dr. Vaishali. B. Katke graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Kuvempu University, following which she completed her post-graduation in ‘Social Work, Community Organization and Development Practice’ at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
During her internship, she was exposed to working with the ‘rights to safety and dignified living of homeless social groups’. She has exposure to working with marginalized communities, both in the urban and rural clusters. She has worked on different aspects of urban issues of housing, homelessness, and governance in urban space. She has research experience with the landless agriculture labourers, and community, over identity, caste, class, and gender expressions. Accordingly, her research and writing cover several subfields within Social Work, Sociology, and Social Anthropology.
She earned her doctoral research degree in Sociology by exploring dimensions of caste as an ‘Identity paradigm’ with a cultural spectrum over caste, class, social livelihood, and gendered lens in the multi-dimensionality of spatial experience.
She is passionate about cultures, people’s rights, identity-based interdisciplinary approaches, and social justice.
Vikas has previously worked with several development organizations that focused on informal labor, including Hyderabad Urban Lab, Indo Global Social Service Society, Ajeevika Bureau, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing & Organizing, and Citizen Matters, among others. He has worked in various capacities ranging from research, advocacy, and networking to project management, coordination, and policy analysis.
His work focuses on informal labor in urban spaces, particularly at the intersection of gender, caste, and climate change. Vikas holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in History from Hindu College, University of Delhi.
Vikas is labor activist who earns a living as a researcher and urban practitioner but truly thrives through writing on labor. In his free time, he enjoys writing poems, short fiction, and producing podcasts on labor. He writes under the name “City of Laborer Speaks,” his imagined city for laborers. Additionally, he is a part-time comedian, performing acts centered on the lives of informal laborers in the city.
