Rupal Kulkarni

Director on the Board
Rupal’s work involves designing and delivering financial services for low-income migrant communities; social protection programs for informal workers; and action-research and policy in financial inclusion. She was formerly the CEO of Shram Sarathi, a pioneering institution working on financial inclusion of highly vulnerable labour migrants in India. In the past she has also worked with grassroots organizations in Ghana and Mumbai. She was an HSBC scholar at the London School of Economics and is part of a distinguished cohort of social entrepreneurs at the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Program. She has been featured globally by UN Women’s #SheInnovates campaign that celebrates women using innovation for advancing social impact. She was also awarded the Study UK Alumni Award for Social Impact by British Council in 2019, the VV Lead fellowship by Vital Voices in 2017 and the ICICI fellowship in 2012.
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Divya Ravindranath

Director on the Board
Divya is a researcher and faculty at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bangalore. Divya’s research interests include informal work, migration, social protection, gender, and urban health. Her doctoral work focused on child under-nutrition and maternal access to healthcare services and government programmes among migrant households engaged in construction work. Building on this, her work at IIHS examines how women in the informal economy experience the mother-worker conundrum as they seek to balance paid work and childcare in the absence of any form of maternity benefits. Her ongoing projects look at time-use, paid and unpaid work and breastfeeding practices at informal work sites. Divya teaches ethnographic methods and urban health at IIHS and has been a visiting faculty at CEPT, Ahmedabad. She holds a PhD in Social Work from Brown School, Washington University in St Louis and a Masters in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
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The Team

Divya Varma
Co-founder and Director- Knowledge and Policy
Divya has long years of experience in policy analysis, advocacy and research, non-profit strategy, management and fund-raising. Building on her experience in direct grassroots action in establishing and managing worker centres in high migration geographies, she has published widely on issues related to migration and informality in various academic and popular platforms. She has also made representations on the issue in several national and international fora, including at the Niti Ayog where she was a member of the sub-committee on labour migration. Divya is a recipient of many prestigious fellowships including the Fulbright- Nehru Fellowship for Leadership Development, Joint- Japan World Bank Scholarship and the Open Society Fellowship for Rights and Governance. She holds a degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Masters from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand.
Tara Nair
Co-Founder and Director- Research
Tara is a prolific researcher with decades of work across various domains including livelihoods and labour, rural finance, and gender. Having completed MPhil and PhD in Applied Economics and Economics, respectively, from the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), Tara previously served as member of the faculty of the Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR), Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA) and Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). She also headed research at the Friends of Women’s World Banking (India). She was a visiting scholar at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’homme, Paris; Media Management and Transformation Centre, Jonkoping International Business School, Jonkoping University, Sweden; and the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, USA.
Nisarg Joshi
Associate- Social Compact
Nisarg is based in Ahmedabad and has worked on diverse thematic areas such as institution and capacity-building, financial inclusion, health, sanitation, nutrition, and rural livelihood promotion. He leads the Social Compact initiative that seeks to ensuring greater dignity and equity for informal workers by building strategic partnerships with corporations, non-profits, and sector experts. Prior to working with Work Fair and Free, Nisarg has worked with development organisations such as JEEViKA (BRLPS) and Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) in different managerial and research capacities. He holds an MBA in Rural Management degree from XIMB, Bhubaneswar.
Bhakti Vardam
Research Associate
Bhakti primarily undertakes participatory research with informal workers cutting across diverse occupational sectors. Her research interests include wage dynamics, occupational safety and health and housing choices of informal sector workers. She has also been a part of the Social Compact initiative that seeks to ensure greater dignity for India’s large industry-employed workforce. She was previously associated with YUVA in Navi Mumbai. She has a Master’s degree in development from Azim Premji University and a Bachelors Degree in Social Work the College of Social work, Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai.
Niveditha GD
Research Fellow
Niveditha undertakes research on issues such as informal work and housing arrangements, urban and labour governance, and gender-based vulnerabilities linked to migration. She has a Master's degree in Public Policy from National Law School of India University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Azim Premji University. For her Master’s thesis, she explored how urban employment guarantee models can be conceptualised and operationalised as an important policy tool for informal workers.
Anuraag Srinivasan
Associate – Knowledge Management
Anuraag primarily undertakes research on the migrant labour corridors in southern India, while also leading coordination of interface with critical stakeholders in the labour and migration ecosystem. His research interests include studying wages, wellbeing, and informality of labour through a historical paradigm, which he also explored during his Master’s degree in History from Ambedkar University in Delhi. He completed his bachelor’s degree in the same discipline from University of Delhi. He was previously associated with the Azim Premji Foundation.

Board

Rupal Kulkarni
Director on the Board

Rupal’s work involves designing and delivering financial services for low-income migrant communities; social protection programs for informal workers; and action-research and policy in financial inclusion. She was formerly the CEO of Shram Sarathi, a pioneering institution working on financial inclusion of highly vulnerable labour migrants in India. In the past she has also worked with grassroots organizations in Ghana and Mumbai. She was an HSBC scholar at the London School of Economics and is part of a distinguished cohort of social entrepreneurs at the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Program. She has been featured globally by UN Women’s #SheInnovates campaign that celebrates women using innovation for advancing social impact. She was also awarded the Study UK Alumni Award for Social Impact by British Council in 2019, the VV Lead fellowship by Vital Voices in 2017 and the ICICI fellowship in 2012.

Divya Ravindranath
Director on the Board

Divya is a researcher and faculty at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bangalore. Divya’s research interests include informal work, migration, social protection, gender, and urban health. Her doctoral work focused on child under-nutrition and maternal access to healthcare services and government programmes among migrant households engaged in construction work. Building on this, her work at IIHS examines how women in the informal economy experience the mother-worker conundrum as they seek to balance paid work and childcare in the absence of any form of maternity benefits. Her ongoing projects look at time-use, paid and unpaid work and breastfeeding practices at informal work sites. Divya teaches ethnographic methods and urban health at IIHS and has been a visiting faculty at CEPT, Ahmedabad. She holds a PhD in Social Work from Brown School, Washington University in St Louis and a Masters in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Divya Varma
Co-founder and Director- Knowledge and Policy

Divya has long years of experience in policy analysis, advocacy and research, non-profit strategy, management and fund-raising. Building on her experience in direct grassroots action in establishing and managing worker centres in high migration geographies, she has published widely on issues related to migration and informality in various academic and popular platforms. She has also made representations on the issue in several national and international fora, including at the Niti Ayog where she was a member of the sub-committee on labour migration. Divya is a recipient of many prestigious fellowships including the Fulbright- Nehru Fellowship for Leadership Development, Joint- Japan World Bank Scholarship and the Open Society Fellowship for Rights and Governance. She holds a degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Masters from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand.

Tara Nair
Co-Founder and Director- Research

Tara is a prolific researcher with decades of work across various domains including livelihoods and labour, rural finance, and gender. Having completed MPhil and PhD in Applied Economics and Economics, respectively, from the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), Tara previously served as member of the faculty of the Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR), Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA) and Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). She also headed research at the Friends of Women’s World Banking (India). She was a visiting scholar at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’homme, Paris; Media Management and Transformation Centre, Jonkoping International Business School, Jonkoping University, Sweden; and the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, USA.