Our Team

Mr. Sadani has been passionately running multi-sector developmental programs on gender and health, for over 3 decades. He is a co-founder and Chief Functionary of MAVA. Harish has done his Masters in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and has been engaging and mentoring thousands of adolescent boys and young men across India to communicate with peers on healthy relationships, masculinity and sexuality-related matters, using out-of-the-box methods. Currently, he is also a Consultant and Trainer to Corporates, Universities, Colleges and NGOs across India on prevention of sexual harassment at workplace and other gender matters. Harish has been invited by national and international bodies like UN Women and UNFPA to share insights and build capacities of various stakeholders on addressing issues of gender-based and sexual violence against women.

Mr. Vasudevan Srinivasan has over twenty-five years of corporate experience in areas of Human Resource Strategy building, aligning Human Resource strategy to Corporate Strategy, Gender Sensitivity & Inclusion, Performance Management et al. Under “In Betweens”, his film production company, Vasu has scripted, directed & produced over 90 educational and training films, for a number of organizations including ACC, Aditya Birla, HUL, Pepsi, Marico, Dabur and Microsoft and even the occasional advertising film for NGOs. To his credit is the scripting and direction of the much acclaimed management film ’Chanakya Speaks’. Post the enactment of the Sexual Harassment Act 2013, Vasu spearheaded an exhaustive research which culminated in the in-house direction and production of 3 much acclaimed short videos on Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the Workplace. Some of organizations which have benefited from the video-based workshops are Asian Paints, Wipro, Philips, Siemens, Taj Hotels, Marico, Tata Sons, Pfizer et al. Vasu has a Masters in Business Economics from the University of Delhi and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur, (1983). Vasu received the Gurukul Chevening Scholarship at the London School of Economics and Political Science for a programme on Leadership and Globalization, and has also conducted workshops at the LSE for the same programme.

Mr. Dinesh Ahir is a practising Chartered Accountant having an experience of more than 38 years. He is also a partner in the CA firm M/s. Batliboi Purohit & Darbari which has offices in Mumbai & Kolkata. He has rich experience in taxation, auditing, financial and management consultancy for Corporates, Co-operative banks, State public sector undertakings like Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal Ltd (MAVIM), Mahila Aayog, Maharashtra Fisheries Development Corporation, Security Board, Grocery Board. Mr. Ahir has been a Visiting Lecturer in Finance and Taxation for B.Com Course in various colleges like Elphinstone College, Ismail Yusuf College and Khalsa College. He is a Founder Trustee of Action for Good Governance and Networking in India (AGNI) and NGO Alliance for Governance and Renewal (NAGAR), both NGOs actively involved in civic and governance issues in Mumbai. Also he is a Honorary Treasurer and Trustee at Aroehan Trust.

Associate Professor (retired), College of Social Work Nirmala Niketan and Former Director, Social Audit, Government of Maharashtra involved in conducting social audit of MGNREGA, Old Age and Widow Pensions and Housing schemes of the Government. A social work graduate from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, she taught at the College of Social Work for almost three decades and has been closely associated in various capacities, with several organisations working for tribal and rural development in Maharashtra. Ms Kanitkar was elected from the Teachers’ Constituency to the Senate of the University of Mumbai for three consecutive terms and actively contributed to the functioning of the University during her tenure. She has also worked on the Committee against Sexual Harassment at the University and has addressed issues of gender equality in the various colleges and institutions of higher education of the University. She is the Founder Member and Trustee of AROEHAN - a non-profit organisation working for the past twelve years to bring sustainable change to the tribal community of Mokhada and Palghar District.

Mr. Mahesh Kamble is working as Assistant Professor in the Jamsetji Tata School of Disaster Studies in the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai since 2006. He completed his Master's Degree in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, where he is currently pursuing his PhD. Mahesh was the Coordinator of Rural Development Programme of SIDDHI in Guhagar block of Ratnagiri District. He was one of the consultants in drafting the Disaster Management Action Plan for the state of Maharashtra in 1997. As coordinator of youth programme in YUVA, he anchored the Anubhav Shiksha programme for Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Goa. He worked as the Director of Samarthan, NGO working for state level budget analysis and policy advocacy. As part of studies and profession, he intervened in various disaster situations at different levels like Earthquakes in Latur and Gujarat, Floods in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, landslides and floods in Uttarakhand, Cyclone in Odisha, Malin landslide and Droughts in Maharashtra. He is a Supreme Court nominated member on the State Level Monitoring Committee on Shelter for Homeless. Apart from regular work of teaching, research and guidance, he actively engages in field practices for food security, Dalit issues, livelihood and governance and policy advocacy.

Asiya Shervani designs and facilitates customized interventions, policies and programmes to improve accountability, psychological safety and social inclusion in organizations. She is a regular discussant at MAVA’s film festivals in colleges and universities all over India.

She is an advisor and member of several gender-parity focused committees as well as bullying and sexual harassment prevention and investigation, mediation and conflict-resolution committees in governmental, non-governmental, educational/media/research institutions, start-ups and small/medium sized public and private sector companies. Asiya has a masters degree in social sciences and over 25 years of experience in research, instructional design, facilitation of learning experiences and conversations on issues such as caste, gender, sexuality, interpersonal effectiveness, inter-group dialogue, leadership and teamwork.

Mr. Pravin Thote is working currently as Project Coordinator at Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA), Mumbai looking after the Gender-Sensitization and Mentoring Program among college-going young men in Mumbai since September 2017. He has done Masters of Arts in Development from Azim Premji University in 2016 and Masters of Arts in Sociology at Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Nagpur in 2014. Pravin has previously worked with Aangan Trust in a district in North India on child rights looking after Capacity-Building, networking with various stakeholders and community resource-organizations. He has also worked as a Field Researcher at Government of Goa on the topic of imbibing constitutional values among young children. He has been a founder-member of Ek Swapn, Ek Aasha, a social organization working for the education of disadvantaged youths in Bhandara district of Maharashtra State.

Altamash Khan is working currently as Project Coordinator at Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA), Mumbai looking after the Gender-Sensitization and Mentoring Program among college-going young men in Mumbai since August 2018. He has done his Master of Arts in Women Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai in the batch 2016-18. Altamash has previously worked with the Committed Community Development Trust, Mumbai as a Research Officer. His paper titled ‘The experiences of women post Bodo Muslim Conflict 2013 in Kokrajhar, Assam’ was awarded as the best paper in the young scholar category by the Indian Sociological Society. Altamash also served as an elected student member of the Internal Committee (IC) at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai related to Redressal of Complaints on Sexual Harassment. He enjoys cooking and loves to host people so that they appreciate his cooking.