Team
Mr. Arjun Kapoor
Arjun is currently a Research Associate at the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy. Prior to this, in 2012, he completed his B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. He was subsequently appointed as Law Clerk cum Research Assistant to the Supreme Court of India. He then went on to work with Centre for Social Justice, Ahmedabad where he was engaged in developing socio-legal interventions on access to justice. In 2017, Arjun completed his M.A. Psychology (Psycho-Social Clinical Studies) from Ambedkar University, Delhi before joining the Centre. His areas of interest range from law & development, mental health policy and psychology.
Arpita Patel
Arpita is a determined Public health professional working as a Research associate at the Center for Mental Health Law and Policy, Indian Law Society Pune for the project SPIRIT(Suicide Prevention and Implementation Research Initiative) in Gujarat. Prior to this, in 2016, she has completed her Bachelor’s in Homoeopathic Medicine and Surgery from Jawaharlal Nehru Homoeopathic Medical college, Vadodara. In 2019, Arpita completed her Master of Public Health with the specialization in Epidemiology from Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal before joining the Center. Her areas of interest ranges from Cancer Epidemiology, Child Nutrition and Mental Health as well as Health economics and Biostatistics. In free time, she loves to watch all genre movies, reading fictions and playing outdoor sports.
Dr. Deepa Pandit
Deepa, by training public health professional have PhD in Biometry and Nutrition, Pune University. She has broad interdisciplinary background focussing on public health nutrition, research methodology, epidemiology and biostatistics. Actively involved in i) Formulation of projects in public health ii) Designing experiments and statistical analysis of life sciences data. As a part of PhD largely worked on metabolic syndrome in adolescents and their nutrition further, extended this work in studying cardio-metabolic risk factors in adults under Women Scientist Fellowship program. As a result of research work she has published 20 articles in International/national Journals. Currently working as Data coordinator (Statistics and data management) at the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy(CMHLP) since Feb 2017
Ms. Gauri Damle
Gauri, Alumni of TISS, graduated with a Master’s degree in Disability Studies and Action. Having accomplished the International diploma in Mental Health, Human Rights and Law, she also recently completed a pilot project, QualityRights, in collaboration with I.L.S (Pune), Government of Gujarat and WHO which aimed at improving the quality of life of people with mental illness in six mental health facilities of Gujarat. Passionate about working in the social sector, Gauri envisages for an inclusive society that embraces diversity and respects the rights and dignity of all. Thankful for being blessed with loving family and friends, she spends her free time with them.
Ms. Jasmine Kalha
Jasmine Kalha has completed her Masters of Arts in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and her M.Phil in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University. She is an alumnus of the course and has been working at the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, Indian Law Society, Pune since 2014. Her work focuses on implementing evidence-informed research on mental health and human rights and scaling up effective interventions. She has worked with public mental health systems through WHO’s QualityRights intervention at-scale in Gujarat and continues to provide technical assistance to international partner countries. She is involved with the scale-up of Atmiyata, a community-based mental health intervention in a district called Mehsana, Gujarat, and other districts. She also leads an intervention on implementing a scalable model of peer support within a public mental health facility2 as part of the European Union consortium.
Dr. Kaustubh Joag
Psychiatrist, works as a senior research fellow at CMHLP, ILS and a project co-lead for Atmiyata. He is trained as a psychiatrist. He is involved in implementing and scaling Atmiyata. He was a co-principal investigator for proof-of-concept stage (2013-15) and principal investigator for Transition to Scale ( TTS) phase (2016-2019). Currently, he has leads the social franchise model in partnership with MAVIM. He has completed the International diploma in Mental Health, human rights and law in 2013-14 and coordinates the same since its inception.
Ms. Madhumitha Balaji
Madhumitha is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy. She is the Principal Investigator for a research project which aims to understand reasons for suicide attempts in young people in India, conducted by Sangath, Goa in collaboration with the Centre. Over the last 10 years, she has been involved with coordinating and implementing research projects in India that have developed and evaluated low cost, feasible and effective interventions for mental health conditions such as schizophrenia and depression. Her research interests span mental health services research; complex interventions; youth mental health; and severe mental illness.
Dr. Isha Lohumi
Dr. Isha is currently a Research Associate at the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, Indian Law Society Pune for SPIRIT, Gujarat. Prior to this, in 2015, she completed her B.Sc. (Hons.) in Human Development and Childhood Studies from the University of Delhi. In 2019, Isha completed her M.A. in Social Work in Mental Health from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, before joining the centre. Her areas of interest range from advocacy, gender, mental health and well-being of vulnerable groups, and understanding the effectiveness, value, and behavior in the production and consumption of health and healthcare. "
Dr. Nikhil Jain
Nikhil is an aspiring public health professional, currently posted as a Research Associate at the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, ILS Pune for SPIRIT project in Gujrat. Prior to this, in 2015, he has completed his Bachelor's in Homoeopathic Medicine and Surgery from Rani Durgavati Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur. Post that, in 2018, he completed his Master of Public Health in Social Epidemiology from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He has also completed Diploma in Family education and HIV AIDS from IGNOU along with his parallel degree in Science. His area of interest ranges from health systems project management, policy formulation, advocacy and biostatistics and is passionate to bring some real-time changes in Indian health systems. In spare time he enjoys playing the guitar, writing short poems and watching movies.
Ms. Renuka Nardodkar
Renuka Nardodkar is working at CMHLP for the regulatory affairs and data management of the Suicide Prevention and Implementation Research Initiative (SPIRIT) funded by National Institutes of Health. She holds doctoral degree in mental health, law and human rights from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam (The Netherlands). Renuka has been involved in conducting scientific and legal research to advance human rights advocacy for persons with mental health problems nationally and internationally. Her work has specifically revolved around reviewing mental health legislation, marriage, employment, property-related legislation in the context of international human rights treaties; and building a case for psychiatric advance directives and health insurance for persons with mental illness in India
Ms. Sadhvi Krishnamoorty
Sadhvi Krishnamoorthy is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, and a Programme Manager for Atmiyata and SPIRIT. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Delhi University and a Master’s degree in Counselling from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Right after completing her post graduate degree in Counselling, she joined the centre as a Research Assistant on the QualityRights Gujarat project, which worked towards systemic improvement in the quality of services delivered by mental health facilities in Gujarat. She also got an opportunity to be a part of International Diploma in Mental Health, Human Rights and Law. Her work has helped her broaden her perspective towards translating rights into practise, whether it be within institutions or in communities.
Sandesh Samudre
Sandesh is a health systems researcher with a keen interest in the role of social and community involvement in the prevention and treatment of mental illness and health system strengthening in low resource settings globally. Sandesh is working as a Research Management Specialist contributing to the SPIRIT project and other ventures of Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy at ILS. Sandesh has contributed to the Health Systems Research projects in low and middle income countries in Asia and Africa. Sandesh holds a graduate degree in Medicine (BAMS) and postgraduate degree of Masters in Public Health (MPH) from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. In 2016, Sandesh was awarded a PhD studentship by the European Commission to pursue PhD program with Health Service and Population Research Department of King’s College London. Sandesh has published his research work in high impact peer-reviewed journals including BMC Psychiatry and British Journal of Psychiatry.
Sharon Sabu
Sharon Sabu is a Research Associate working at the CMHLP. Completed M.A Social Work in Mental Health from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. After studies, she joined Prerana's Aarambh India Initiative which is child rights based organization working with child victims of sexual offences. Further, currently she is as a part of the project on Capacity building for implementation of Mental Healthcare Act 2017 and responsible for designing, developing modules and conducting trainings for stakeholders in the implementation of the act.
Dr. Soumitra Pathare
Soumitra Pathare (Course Co-ordinator) is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy at ILS. He has contributed to the WHO Mental Health Policy and Service Guidance Package. He has worked as a consultant in various countries like Seychelles, Eritrea, Indonesia, Lesotho, Samoa and Vanuatu assisting them in developing mental health policy and drafting and implementing mental health legislation. He helped draft India's new mental health law and was a member of the Policy Group appointed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, to draft a new national mental health policy for India. He was the Project Lead on QualityRights Gujarat project to implement WHO QualityRights program in public mental health services in Gujarat. He is also Project Director of SPIRIT, a NIMH funded Hub for suicide prevention in South East Asia. He is also a member of the ATMIYATA team which is scaling up a lay volunteer based community program to improve access to mental health services in rural Gujarat.
Ms. Priyanka Kusmude
Completed M.Com from B.M.C.C. in 2014 & D.T.L. from ILS Law College in 2013.She is working as Accounts Assistant in Indian Law Society from Nov 2015. Her total Work Experience in accounts and Taxation field is 7 years.
Dr. Padam Jain
Dr. Padam Jain is a Public Health Professional having two years of experience in the Health System Research. He received his bachelor’s degree in Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery from Sardar Patel University, Anand in 2015. He then pursued his Master’s in Public Health from Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar with a dissertation titled “Assessment of WHO Health System building blocks in rural Rajasthan.” Currently, he is a Research Associate in CHMLP in SPIRIT Project based in Mehsana with the implementation research team. He is also involved in Data Management of SPIRIT Project. He has presented posters and oral papers in various national and international conferences. His area of interest includes health systems research, project management, advocacy and data management. In leisure time he enjoys travelling, meeting new people and reading books.
Ms. Shubhangi Puranik
Shubhangi Puranik has done M.Sc. in Statistics from the University of Pune. She works in the Indian Law Society as Computer Assistant since 1993.
Yash Bagra
Yash completed his BA. LL.B in 2017 from Nirma University, Ahmedabad and pursued LL.M from National Law School of India University, Bangalore with specialisation in Human Rights. At CMHLP, he is working as a Research Associate in the project on "Capacity Building for implementation of Mental Healthcare Act, 2017." He has volunteered with various child and refugee rights organizations during his college days and is passionate to work with United Nations human rights programmes in future.
Mr.Yogesh Sonawane
Yogesh Sonawane has done B.Com. from BMCC. He works in the Accounts Department of the Indian Law Society since 1999.
