I currently serve as the sixth United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, appointed by the Human Rights Council in October 2022.
As a Dalit woman, I was fortunate to have been exposed to several issues related to Dalit and other progressive movements, within the family, at an early age, which provided me with perspective of the Ambedkarite ideology that I try and adhere to. I have a Doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University in South Asian Studies.
I work closely with Dalit and Adivasi grassroot groups, specially in South India. I have worked as a Senior Campaigner on Business and Human Rights with Amnesty International India, as a guest faculty member of the Department of Political Science at Mount Carmel College, and as Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science of St. Joseph’s College in India.
I have authored several publications on the issues of discrimination, including “International Dimension of Caste-Based Discrimination: A Global Perspective of Dalit Human Rights, Vol. 7 Issue, 6 June, 2021” and “Mapping Social Exclusion in Higher Education: Experiences of Dalit students” (2017), in Ambrose Pinto (ed.) Politics of Caste Dynamics, ISBN: 978-93-86516-15-2, Bangalore, ATC Publishers”.
I also have previous experience of working with national and international NGOs for over a decade years. I focus on intersectionality, Dalit women, caste-based gender violence, human rights, and related issues.
I am an International Sexual and Gender based violence Expert. Born and raised in a Muslim family in India, I have been working in the development sector, with a special focus on Minorities and Gender and the intersectionality between the two for over 15 years now. I have an MA degree (second) in Human Rights law from the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, as a Felix Scholar.
In the past I have worked with ActionAid India, Amnesty International, the National Commission for Denotified Tribes in India, AMAN Thailand, at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan and at the UN Headquarters in New York. At the UN my focus was on work around Conflict Related Sexual Violence. I have been a senior Minority fellow at OHCHR and have mentored a minority cohort from across the Globe. I was also invited as an SGBV expert by OHCHR to monitor the elections in Kenya in 2022.
I write extensively in the media on issues related to women's human rights as well as themes of Minority rights, Identity Based Violence (online and offline) and Muslim women’s rights in portals like Wire, Al Jazeera and the Inter Press Service among others.
