Building Bridges Reaching Minds
I started my career in Public Health working with patient groups of People living with HIV/AIDS on the right to access treatment and to understand the effects of stigma and discrimination in the late 90s. My choice of public health as a career was due to my conviction that the work of a public health professional has direct and long-term relevance to the lives of those who are marginalised and need improved access to the determinants of health. After completing my Masters in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2008, I joined PHFI and have been a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Public Health Delhi. I lead the teaching portfolios on Health Policy and Research Methods at the institute and also run an annual workshop on advanced qualitative data analysis techniques.
My work has taken me across the length and breadth of the country and to collaborate with several partners from the government, health care providers, civil society and the community. I am passionate about ensuring access to health care for especially those who belong to marginalised sections of the population and in understanding how research outputs can be translated into action. My current work seeks to understand whether the present global approach to Universal Health Coverage will lead to better access to quality health care services for excluded communities and what needs to be done in order to ensure that they are not left behind.