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India

Public Health, Gender, and Sexuality

Lecturers

LECTURERS TYPICALLY INCLUDE:

Rituparna Borah, MPhil
Rituparna Borah (she/her) is an Indigenous, disabled, queer, feminist activist with 15 years of experience in gender, sexuality, and LGBTQIA+ issues. Currently, she is the co-director of Nazariya: A Queer Feminist Resource Group in Delhi, India. She is also a fellow of OutRight Action International for the Beijing 25+ process. She is part of Voices Against 377, which was a co-petitioner in the Section 377 case in India. She has been published in several online and offline journals including InPlainSpeak, Quint, Scroll, Hindustan Times, and the International Feminist Journal of Politics. She was featured in a documentary, “I am” by Sonali Gulati. She has participated in various national and international conferences, including the 2019 LBQ conference in Cape Town, IGLYO Youth meet, and the 2009 World Outgames. She is an experienced peer counsellor, curriculum developer, and trainer who is pursuing her second master’s degree in psychology. She has also co-directed a film called Ïshq, Dosti and All That.

Aqsa Shaikh, MD

Dr. Aqsa Shaikh is one of the India’s first transgender doctors and a proud transgender woman. She is an associate professor of Community Medicine at Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi. She is a collaborator with the iHEAR initiative at Sangath India, which undertakes research and project implementation for inclusion of transgender and disability communities in the healthcare sector. She also serves as section editor of PLOS Global Public Health and Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. She has a keen interest in medical education technology and medical humanities. She is India’s first and only Nodal Officer of a covid vaccination centre for transgender persons in India. Shaikh has penned numerous books, essays, and chapters. She blogs on issues of social interest. She is a TEDx speaker and a poet.

Jayanti Singh, MD, MPH
Dr. Singh is a medical doctor and trained public health specialist and epidemiologist with about 20 years of management of various public health programs and leading epidemiolocal studies in India in the field of immunization, neglected tropical diseases like lymphatic filariasis (LF) and malaria, HIV/AIDs, disease surveillance and polio eradication. Currently, she is engaged with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the development of a national strategic plan for malaria elimination in India and mapping pf LF with University of Washington. She is also a CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service India fellow. She has worked closely with UNICEF during the Covid-19 pandemic and for UNICEF’s polio eradication program in UP, and she has been part of WHO’s national polio surveillance and operations team in India.

She participated as one of the independent evaluators in the National Leprosy Eradication Programme of India, and was part of public health programs and skilling India programs for Innabrum Technologies, providing monitoring and evaluation support for malaria control efforts in seven highly endemic northeastern states. She was closely associated with impact assessment studies of the training of nurses on holistic care for people living with HIV/AIDS for India’s National AIDS Control Program.

Dr. Jayanti also served as the team physician for the national Indian women’s soccer team during the Asian Championship in 2000.

Anjali Capila, PhD
Dr. Capila is a professor at Lady Irwin College in Delhi University. She authored Images of Women in the Folk Songs of Garhwal Himalayas (2002) and Traditional Health Practices of Kumaoni Women: Continuity and Change (2004). She teaches communication systems, media planning, and advocacy. She is deeply involved with planning and organizing department activities with rural and semi-urban communities.

Ashutosh Guleri, MD
Dr. Guleri is a Panchakarma expert with a practice of holistic and traditional treatments mentioned in Ayurveda. He has treated patients all over the world. Along with a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery degree from Goa University’s Gomantak Ayurveda Mahavidyalya & Research Centre, Dr. Guleri holds a postgraduate certificate in Panchakarma from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Karnataka. He has presented and published scientific papers across India and translated Ayurvedic Anatomy from Marathi to Hindi. He is an avid blogger and writer.