I met Professor Shalini Bharat at the departure zone of Raipur Airport in April 2022. We were taking the same flight to Jagdalpur in the Bastar District of Chhattishgarh along with Javeed Ahmad, Chinar International, Kashmir; Uday Wankawala, CEO Atal Incubation Centre, Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini Foundation; Satyajeet Singh Thakur, farmer turned ace entrepreneur from Bina, Madhya Pradesh; Sheshadri Iyer, Senior Strategic Advisor and Consultant (SDG, ESG, PE, VC) and business growth coach Devang Patel. All of us were invited by Prof Satyajit Majumdar, Dean of Management Studies, TISS for a 3 days ‘Social Entrepreneurship Conclave’ showcasing local start-ups who were mentored by the TISS incubation centre at Jagdalpur – ‘Think-B’.

Rebounding from the 2 years embargo with the pandemic, the shared passion of sustaining inclusive impact driven societal growth was palpable amidst all of us – exchanging professional notes within minutes of meeting each other presumably for the first time!
Since the formative years of Catalyst, generating awareness amongst students at schools and colleges about career opportunities with public health outside the traditional medical stream has been a priority for us. And quite often in our regular classes at Catalyst to train social science aspirants for Bachelors and Masters opportunities, we would be discussing about sustained research driven intervention and advocacy to prevent the spread of HIV. In our field work – experiential learning module at Catalyst, many aspirants show a keen interest to conduct primary data collection drives with female sex workers (FSW). During the research design, Professor Shalini Bharat’s seminal work helped in shaping perspectives of our aspirants. Few of those many references would be the following :
- Understanding the increase in HIV prevalence among FSWs between two rounds of IBBA in Mumbai & Thane: An in-depth exploration. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
- HIV Related Stigma Research in India: Current knowledge, gaps and recommendations. New Delhi: UNDP”
- A national survey on HIV Related Stigma and Discrimination in urban India. New Delhi: UNDP
- Sexual Networks, Partner Concurrency and Implications for HIV Transmission Among Men Having Sex with Men, in Mumbai and Pune city : An exploratory study with Deshpande, Sucheta, Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Prof Shalini Bharat has nearly four decades of experience in teaching, research, capacity building, advocacy and field action in broad areas of social science and health, social development, family studies and minority community demographics. She is known for her work on equity and access issues with special reference to reproductive and women’s health; social determinants of HIV and TB, including stigma, discrimination and human rights issues; multi-purpose prevention technologies for HIV epidemic; self-testing for HIV prevention; young people’s health and wellbeing; family studies and child adoption; women, work and family; and demography of the Indian Parsi community.
Social science aspirants trained at Catalyst backed by practical exposure have been able to craft career pathways with gender, public health, hospital administration, social work professional programmes at Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Few of our many alumni working with or studying gender and public health
- Prarthana Lohia, Counselor – Researcher with SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action); MSW Women Centred Practice, TISS
- Sudeshna Bandyopadhyay – Pursuing Masters in Public Health – Social Epidemiology, TISS
- Rohan Mhatre – Healthcare Professional at ‘Indegene’; MPH – Hospital Administration, TISS
- Himani Goyal – Pursuing MPH – Health Policy, Economics and Finance, TISS
- Ruchika Wayal – Pursuing Masters in Social Work, Public Health, TISS
About Catalyst: Since 2011, students and working professionals have been able to successfully craft a career with Bachelors and Masters programmes offered by TISS, Azim Premji University, TERI, XIM, IIT, Nirmala Niketan, NLSIU, Sciences Po, London School of Economics and Political Science, Symbiosis, IIMC, ACJ, XIC, JNU, Ambedkar University et al with capacity building training for development sector at Catalyst.
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