Women’s right to live with Dignity and Freedom

About Us

Who we are – vision and mission  
Sanhita is a Gender Resource Centre with its roots in the Indian women’s movement with and a long-standing commitment to gender justice and gender equity. Sanhita was established in 1996 as a non-profit charitable Trust with a simple but powerful belief: that access to information and knowledge will enable women to become agents of change in their own lives and communities. Since our inception, Sanhita has worked towards mainstreaming gender concerns through an empowerment-based approach.

 

Where we work  
Over the past three decades, Sanhita’s work has spanned across both grassroots communities and institutional spaces, connecting the organisation with diverse stakeholders in multiple States in the country, while also engaging with global ideas, feminist frameworks and evolving discourses on gender justice. Sanhita has worked on a wide range of issues including legal literacy, sexual and reproductive health and rights, menstrual health, violence against women and workplace sexual harassment.

 

How we work  
Since 1999, creating safer, more equitable and inclusive workplaces for women has been a key focus of our work. The approach has always been holistic. Alongside awareness-building and training, Sanhita conducts action research periodically, contributing to strengthening institutional capacities, supporting redressal mechanisms, developing peer leadership, creating knowledge resources and building community-based referral and support systems.

 

Who we work with  
Sanhita’s is located at the intersection of community realities and institutional engagement. The work spans across diverse sectors ranging from public sector undertakings, factories, plantations, government frontline services as well as home-based industries. The wide catchment has enabled Sanhita to build a deep contextual understanding of how workplace violence and safety concerns manifest differently across occupational settings and social locations. Sanhita’s sustained field presence continues to inform theresearch, training methodologies and institutional engagements. Alongside, Sanhita remains committed to learning, innovation and evidence-based practice.

 

Future vision  
Sanhita remains committed and will continue to work across sectors, at both local and national levels, towards empowerment of vulnerable women workers, especially those at the margins, catalysing the transformation of workplaces into spaces that are safe, equitable, inclusive and accountable.

Meet the Board Members

Soma Sen Gupta

Founder & Managing Trustee

Founding Director of Sanhita, Soma Sen Gupta brings over 35 years of experience in the development sector, and has moved between policy rooms and community spaces, shaping work in gender mainstreaming, workplace safety, training, and institutional capacity building. An Ashoka Fellow, she has worked across eastern India at policy, statutory, and implementation levels, and has served as an External Member in multiple Internal Committees across sectors.

Sreela Das Gupta

Trustee

Sreela Das Gupta has worked for 35 years in the space of women’s rights and social inclusion. She is currently the Lead for Diversity Equity and Inclusion working across 54 countries.
With an MPhil in Population Studies, from JNU, Sreela worked for over two decades in the not-for-profit sector, focusing on issues related to gender equity, women’s economic and political rights, violence against women, reproductive health, child survival and public health service delivery. Sreela has worked both with rural poor communities; and in the area of policy formulation and strategic planning with organizations such as CARE International, International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) and consulted with UN Women, USAID, Centre for Policy Research, Oxfam.
Sreela was a Hubert Humphrey Fellow in 2000-01 – and went to the Tulane School of Public Health, New Orleans for her focus area of study on Gender and Public Health.

Rajashi Mukherjee

Trustee

A senior PMEL (Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning) specialist with over 30 years of experience in the development sector, Rajashi Mukherjee has worked extensively in social research and programme evaluation. She has set up data systems and monitoring frameworks for governments and multilateral organisations including UNICEF, DFID, World Bank, and ADB. She also served as Country Director of Water for People (2005–2010). Her work spans WASH governance, institutional capacity building, gender audits, education, child health, and livelihood programmes across multiple countries.

Meet the Team

Sarika Singh

Accounts & Compliance Officer

With nearly three decades at Sanhita, Sarika anchors Sanhita’s financial integrity and compliance systems. With a degree in Accounts and Finance from the University of Calcutta, she brings extensive experience in accounts, finance, compliances, and associated laws.

Sirsha Gupta

Senior Programme Associate

Sirsha Gupta has spent over 17 years working at the intersection of gender, reproductive and sexual health, and workplace safety. She holds a degree in Clinical Nutrition and has experience as a PMEL (Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning) professional. Much of her work has been about creating spaces for challenging conversations - listening to experiences, asking what needs to change, and finding ways to make workplaces safer and more equitable for women.
At Sanhita, she brings together programme design, facilitation, action research and learning, with a particular interest in how insights from the field can shape practice. Her engagement with workplaces as an External Member has brought her closer to the everyday realities of women at work.

Nabanita Mukherjee

Senior Programme Associate

With over 18 years in the development sector, including a decade-plus focus on mental health, and a Master’s degree in Social Work, Nabanita brings a thoughtful balance of conviction and care to her work.She believes that true independence is rooted in responsibility and equitable access to choice. At Sanhita, she contributes to programme implementation with a strong sense of purpose, valuing both freedom and safety in shaping inclusive spaces for women.

Srividhya Sainathan

Senior Research Consultant

Srividhya Sainathan has spent over two decades working with organisations and communities on gender, social inclusion, child rights, livelihoods, climate resilience and workplace safety. With degrees in Biochemistry and Sociology, she brings extensive expertise in social research and evaluation.
Her work spans diverse communities and contexts across South Asia, through research, evaluation, facilitation and strategic learning. She values participatory and gender-transformative approaches that centre lived experiences and challenge conventional ways of understanding development. Her engagement with women workers has deepened her interest in dignity, safety, agency and equity at work. She remains curious about people, their stories and possibilities for more just and inclusive spaces.

Amrita Bhaumik

Programme Associate

Amrita brings over a decade of experience working with diverse communities on issues related to child protection and women’s empowerment. With a Master’s degree in Social Work, she contributes to programme implementation at Sanhita, supporting community-based initiatives with care, empathy, and a strong commitment to inclusive engagement.

Chitrangana Debnath

Programme Associate

With 10 years of experience, Chitrangana has worked across the field of mental health, with a focus on psychosocial wellbeing. She holds a Master’s degree in Psychology. At Sanhita, she contributes to programme implementation by supporting action research, training and documentation, and is involved in translating programme insights into practice and learning.

Julie Saha

Training Assistant

With over 14 years of experience at Sanhita, Julie has worked closely with transgender communities, supporting outreach and community empowerment efforts. She contributes to training and capacity-building initiatives, supporting inclusive and community-focused programme work at Sanhita.

Dipayana Bhattacharya

Training Associate

Dipayana holds a Master’s degree in Social Work and supports programme and training-related initiatives at Sanhita. As an early-career professional, she is developing her practice through engagement in programme coordination and facilitation support.

Silpi Chakraborty

Field Associate

With 5 years of experience in the development sector and as a trained Dance Movement Therapy practitioner, Silpi plays a key role in data management, programme operations and coordination, contributing to the effectiveimplemnentation of programmes.

Our Present Supporters

  • Oak Foundation

  • Paul Hamlyn Foundation

  • Dasra Rebuild India Fund

Those who supported us in the Past

  • Global Fund for Women

  • Ford Foundation

  • UNIFEM, South Asia (Delhi)

  • Sir Dorabji Tata Trust

  • International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW)

  • Fund for Global Human Rights

  • Rukmani Gopalan Gitanjali Krishnan Trust

  • and others

Lets Join Us for women’s right to live