Sunita Viswanath,

Co-Founder

  • Sunita has worked for over 30 years in women’s rights and human rights organizations. Sunita co-founded Hindus for Human Rights in June 2019.

    In 2001, Sunita co-founded the international women’s human rights organization, Women for Afghan Women (WAW), and served as Board Chair of WAW until January 2022. She has been an advisory board member to Unfreeze Afghanistan since its inception in September 2021, and cofounded Abaad: Afghan Women Forward in August 2022. Sunita has edited "Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claiming the Future” (Palgrave McMillan, 2003), a book of essays. For her work with WAW, Sunita was awarded the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Global Women’s Rights Award in 2011. Sunita co-founded Sadhana in 2011 in order to mobilize Hindu Americans to connect their faith to social justice and human rights, and serves on Sadhana’s Executive Board. She was honored by President Obama at the White House in 2015 as a “Champion of Change” for her work with Sadhana. In 2021, Sunita was recognized by Center for American Progress as one of 21 “faith leaders to watch.” Previously, Sunita worked with The Sister Fund and the Funders Concerned About AIDS. Sunita is a board member of Amnesty International-USA. She is an advisory board member of Population Media Center, which uses entertainment-education and mass media to promote social and cultural change. Sunita is a board member of Dalit Solidarity Forum. Sunita is one of five Hindus appointed to NYC Mayor-Elect Eric Adams’ Faith Transition Team; and the only Hindu in the December 2021 Marquis Who’s Who list of faith-based influencers. Sunita lives in Brooklyn, NY and Taos, NM with her husband Stephan Shaw, their sons Satya, Akash and Gautama, and her parents.

Raju, Dec 2018, at the Vaanam Arts Festival in Chennai, organized by Dalit groups, and headlining the popular “Casteless Collective” band

Raju Rajagopal,

Co-Founder

  • Raju has spent over two decades working with Civil Society groups in India and has been active on a range of issues such as rural development, disaster management, governance and transparency, communal harmony, and human rights. He shares his time between Berkeley, CA and Chennai, India and writes on social causes. Prior to engaging with the non-profit sector, he spent over three decades in the corporate world, retiring as the Chief Operating Officer of a publicly traded healthcare company in the U.S.

Sunil Sakhalkar,

Co-Founder

  • Sunil is an architect, and an advocate for the environment, social justice and human rights. He has spent over 30 years practicing architecture in India, New York, Florida and New Mexico. As a passionate advocate of environment, his interest is in sustainable design and new building materials. Sunil serves on the board of One Door Campus for the Homeless and the St. Elizabeth Shelters in Sante Fe. Sunil is also part of the Mayor’s task force in addressing homelessness and affordable housing in Santa Fe.

    Having been brought up as a Hindu Brahmin in Mumbai, India, Sunil understands his privilege. However, living as a minority in the USA, he also understands the importance of equality and rights. He truly appreciates the responsibility and the opportunity it offers him, and the unique position it places him in addressing the social injustice and human rights in India. 

Punya Upadhyaya,

Co-Founder

  • Punya is deeply aware of the power of religion as the true source for transformation and renewal from years of being blessed by his Guru and spending time drinking chai at his Baba's ashram. He works in the areas of leadership and culture with Fortune 500 firms, Native American nations, NGOs, colleges etc. all around the world. His Bollywood song for the work of HfHR is Madhubala singing "jab pyaar kiya to darna kya" - and he looks forward to the power of beauty, music and the Gods and Goddesses to replenish our worlds.

Deepak Gupta,

Co-Founder

  • Deepak is an actor and human rights activist based in New Jersey. Deepak has been a keen student of philosophers such as Gandhi, Lohia and Jaiprakash Narayan who promote the ethic of 'Jai Jagat' (well-being of all in the world). Deepak has worked with 'Narmada Bachao Andolan' (Save Narmada Movement) since its beginning. As a compassionate Hindu, Deepak insists on the rights of Dalits, women and marginal sections of society. Deepak feels all faiths are equal and we all can assert our faiths and work across faiths to create a harmonious world.

Dr. Shanti Raman

  • Dr. Shanti Raman is a co-founder of the Australia-New Zealand chapter of Hindus for Human Rights. Dr. Raman is a Consultant Paediatrician, with sub-specialty training in Community Paediatrics, epidemiology and public health. Her research and teaching interests include health of migrants and refugees, poverty, indigenous child health, child rights and child maltreatment, qualitative research, and global maternal, newborn and child health. She is the Director of Community Paediatrics - South Western Sydney, where she is responsible for clinical services in Child Development and Child Protection across the region, providing academic leadership and directing research and training. She is involved with policy development at State, national and international levels promoting a rights-based perspective to child health and population health. Dr. Raman maintains a strong interest in global health, provides consultancy services in international maternal, newborn and child health, works on population based research projects in Asia- Pacific. She is on the Board of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect (ISPCAN), the Executive Committee of the International Society for Social Pediatrics & Child Health (ISSOP) and on the Board of the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect (NAPCAN). 

    On the community engagement front, Dr. Raman has been involved with a range of non-government agencies, providing support and advocacy to refugee and migrant groups and women’s groups. She is an active member of SAHELI – a South Asian women's network, working in the areas of health, well-being, and economic empowerment and writes for community newspapers and magazines including the Indian Link and The Indian Down Under.

Sravya Tadepalli

  • Sravya is a Master's in Public Policy student at the Harvard Kennedy School with a focus on human rights in the U.S. and South Asia. Prior to HKS, Sravya worked as an employment advisor at a community action agency in rural Oregon. Sravya's writing and reporting has been published in The Nation, The Lily, Prism Reports, American Theatre Magazine, and other publications. She is also a 2018 Truman Scholar.

Urmila Kutikkad

  • Urmila is a current graduate student at Harvard Divinity School with a thousand-pronged “focus” on grief, body, and ritual as they play out in the spheres of gender/sexuality, liberation theology, and South Asian studies. They are adamant about the beauty and necessity of individual and communal healing, and they believe Hindus for Human Rights is moving with grace and force towards this type of healing.

    Urmila’s favorite place to be is on the verandah of their ammamma’s home in Kozhikode during the monsoons, and they love the poet Carl Phillips.

Ramya Devan

  • Ramya Devan is a professor of Economics and Global studies at Stockton University. Her scholarly and public facing writings have been on various topics in feminist and global political economy including immigration and refugee resettlement, dynamics of race and gender in the labor market, colorism, and global financial institutions. She has been a long-term volunteer with refugee resettlement agencies in the Philadelphia area.

    Ramya was raised in various Indian cities spanning the east, west, north, and south by her parents who fully embraced the spirit of the unity in diversity credo that she was taught in school. This cherished upbringing allowed her to experience and learn from the wide spectrum of syncretic cultures and traditions in India. Ramya is student of yoga and trained as an instructor at KYM in Chennai.

Govind Archarya

  • Govind has spent two decades working in social justice and human rights, mostly centered in South Asia. Until recently, he was the India Country Specialist for Amnesty International USA in addition to having a couple of stints on their Board of Directors. He also has a passion for housing rights and advocates for safer and better pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. He works at the University of California, Davis.