Our trustees

Rati Forbes

Honorary Chairperson, Sightsavers India Board

Rati Forbes is Director at Forbes Marshall Ltd – a company which has been, for over six decades, building steam engineering and control instrumentation solutions that work for the process industry. Rati is responsible for the Social Initiatives, which the company supports in the areas of community health, education and women’s issues.

Rati is a graduate in Psychology and Sociology and has done courses in Human Resource Management from IIM Ahmedabad, and more recently, on Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship from Stanford University. Continuing to learn and grow, she lately completed a Master’s degree in Sustainability Leadership and Management, from Cambridge, UK.

Naheed T. Carrimjee

Senior Associate, Desai Desai & Carrimjee, Advocates and Solicitors, Mumbai

Naheed T. Carrimjee is a solicitor and a founding partner of Desai Desai Carrimjee and Mulla, a firm specialising in corporate and civil law. Her practice areas include Litigation, Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Corporate Law, Capital Markets, Foreign Direct Investments, Intellectual Property, Offshore Funds and Venture Capital Funds, Real Estate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Media & Entertainment.

Naheed is a conscious environmentalist and takes keen interest in social & development issues. She supports and is closely involved with several charitable organisations. Her alma mater includes University of Bombay: Government Law College, Mount Holyoke College, USA and London School of Economics, UK.

Dr Hemachandran Karah

Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras

Dr Hemachandran Karah teaches English Literature at the Humanities and Social sciences faculty at IIT Madras. Dr Karah works in the fields of disability studies and medical humanities. He is interested in researching on themes such as the language question, literary criticism, and musicology. A PhD in English Literature from the University of Cambridge, Dr Karah for his doctoral research chose the subject, ‘An Examination of the Politics of Blind Culture in the Writings of Ved Mehta: A Study based on the Concept of Visionism’.

Dr Karah regularly contributes to magazines and newspapers. Few of his forthcoming literary works include A monography on the writings of Ved Mehta and a textbook for the course on Disability, Society and Culture at Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. He is also Member, Society for Disability Studies, USA and Member, Disability Studies Association, UK.

Dr. Alka Barua

MBBS and MD in Paediatrics from Nagpur University and Ph.D. in Sociology from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay

Dr. Alka Barua is a paediatrician, an independent consultant and a researcher whose primary areas of interest span across women and adolescent health, training and capacity building as well as action research.

With over 30 years of experience across 14 states of India in the health sector, she previously held the position of Executive Director at the Foundation for Research in Health Systems, Ahmedabad and was also an advisory Committee Member at the Safe Abortion Advocacy Initiative – A Global South Engagement. She has worked as an active paediatrician, both privately as well as with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

She has a plethora of publications on many prestigious platforms and also worked as a resource person at training workshops organised by NGOs, National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health (ICMR-NIRRH) and the World Health Organisation. Her donor experience includes an array of organisations such as the Aga Khan Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CARE India, among myriad others.

Dr Barua completed her MBBS and MD in Paediatrics from Nagpur University. She also holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay.

Dr. Ashok Dyalchand

Founder Director, Institute of Health Management, Pachod (IHMP)

Dr Ashok Dyalchand is the Founder-Director of the Institute of Health Management, Pachod (IHMP), a renowned public health research and training institution based in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, with a branch in Pune. A public health professional with over four decades of experience, he has made pioneering contributions in the fields of primary health care, reproductive and child health, adolescent health, HIV/AIDS, and community ophthalmology.

Beyond his institutional work, Dr. Dyalchand has been a tireless advocate against child marriage and for girls’ rights in India. His sustained efforts toward gender equality and adolescent empowerment earned him the Children’s Nobel Prize of 2019, a prestigious award presented by the World’s Children’s Prize (WCP) Foundation, Sweden on 9th May 2019 for his work on rights of the girl child. He also received the honorary award at the World’s Children’s Prize (WCP) ‘Child Rights Hero’ ceremony held in Sweden on May 23, in recognition of his lifelong dedication to improving the lives of children and young people