Circle Back

Gender at Work India is bringing together professionals and creatives from different disciplines to deliberate on the nature of institutions, using an intersectional feminist lens. Circle Back is a new conversation series about establishments—social, political, cultural—and how they affect individuals, communities, and cultures.

Jyotsna Siddharth and Sudarsana Kundu chat with experts to decode the contemporary political economy of institutions. We “circle back” to the issues that matter, to arrive at new ways of being and belonging.

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Disability and Reasonable Accommodation at the Workplace

August 17, 2023, Time: 5-6 PM IST

This month, Sudarsana Kundu spoke with Shivangi Agrawal, a queer and disabled activist who is part of the DEI team at Thoughtworks. We delve into the implications of reasonable accommodation at the workplace, the tenets of a holistic institutional disability framework, and more. Tune in!

  • Shivangi is a queer and disabled activist based in Delhi. They are currently working in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion team at Thoughtworks and a member+consultant at the Youth Coalition for Sexual & Reproductive Rights.

    They have over 6 years of experience working as a consultant, researcher, writer, advisor and facilitator with an emphasis on advocacy for disability, sexuality, gender, policy, arts, mental health, SRHR, education and accessibility, with local and global organisations.

  • Sudarsana is the Managing Trustee of Gender at Work India. She is passionate about supporting institutions both within the private and public sector to drive a diversity, equity and inclusion agenda. Over the last two decades, she has advised several organisations, including several UN agencies, to evaluate and assess the impact of their workplace policies, practices and culture on gender equality.

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Belongingness at Work: Unpacking DEI(B)

July 13, 2023, Time: 5-6 PM IST

This month, Jyotsna Siddharth spoke with Zahara Fernandes - Managing Director at Accenture and Accenture India's Pride Sponsor. What does it mean to 'belong' at work? How is Belonging different from Inclusion and why does it matter? How do gender roles influence belonging?

  • Zahara is a Managing Director at Accenture. An IIM Alumni, and a Master Black Belt in Six Sigma, Zahara finds herself interested in statistics and passionately drives the purpose of Inclusion, Diversity & Equity as a business value proposition. Among her many accomplishments, Zahara was recently recognised among Top 100 LGBT+ Future Leaders and Top 50 Ally Trailblazers in the OUTstanding LGBT+ Role Model Lists 2022.

  • Jyotsna is the Country Director of Gender at Work India, and an actor, artist and writer. Jyotsna’s practice spreads across institutional building, intersectionality, arts, activism, theatre, films and development. This year, Jyotsna was a nominee for the Cosmopolitan Blogger's Award for the Dalit Feminism Archive and in 2020 they were featured in 40 under 40 by Edex and New Indian Express. They are also a peer advisor to Feminism in India, The Rights Collective UK, Giving Tuesdays India and the CPA Project.

Towards Health Equity: DEI Initiatives at Work

June 8, 2023, Time: 5-6 PM IST

In June, Sudarsana Kundu spoke with Vivek Divan, Head of Centre for Health Equity, Law and Policy, about health equity in the workplace. What are the essential elements of an equitable health framework? How do institutional policies and practices reinforce inequalities in health? 

  • Vivek Divan heads the Centre for Health Equity, Law & Policy at ILS Pune. His expertise for over two decades has been at the intersections of law, health and sexuality with particular focus on HIV, TB and LGBTQ concerns. He has worked both nationally and internationally on these issues, including leading efforts to challenge section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, drafting a Bill that became India’s HIV/AIDS Act in 2017, building capacity on patent law and access to medicines, serving as member of the Secretariat and Technical Advisory Group of the Global Commission on HIV & the Law, and co-authoring the Legal Environment Assessment on TB in India. He has participated as an expert advisor and speaker at various national and international fora and has published widely. He obtained his law degree from NLSIU, Bangalore, and an LL.M. from Cornell University.

  • Sudarsana Kundu is the Managing Trustee of Gender at Work India. She is an experienced gender equality specialist with a demonstrated history of working in both the development sector and the private sector. Through her work leading UN Women’s programmes on gender and governance, she has worked with governments and CSOs across the globe, providing recommendations on enhancing service delivery for women. Sudarsana has excellent management, strategic and financial planning skills, and is passionate about nurturing a new generation of feminist leaders. She holds a Master’s in Public Administration focused in Economic and Political Development from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. She is also an active Board Member of Nayi Disha, a not-for-profit focused on empowering parents who have children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Caste in/as Institutions

April 6, 2023, Time: 4-5 PM IST

During Dalit History Month, Jyotsna Siddharth and Vishal Kumaraswamy spoke about caste in the current cultural moment. How does caste play out in the making and functioning of institutions? How does it shape policy and practice within institutions and beyond?

  • Vishal Kumaraswamy is a Bangalore, India based artist-curator working across video, text, sound, performance & computational arts. Drawing from his own Dalit heritage, he is engaged in the creation of speculative narratives and counter histories rooted in a range of gestural & conversational research methodologies, oral histories & community storytelling practices.

    Vishal has an MA in Photography from Central Saint Martins, London & his works have been shown at The Venice Biennale’s Research Pavilion, Athens Digital Arts Festival, CCS Bard College, Vector Festival, The Royal College of Art, Furtherfield and SITE Gallery Sheffield. He has previously been an artist in residence with the US Consulate General Mumbai, Contemporary Calgary in Alberta, SAVAC Toronto, Vital Capacities videoclub UK, Onassis AiR & The Singapore Art Museum.

    Vishal’s curatorial practice is deeply concerned with the creation of non-hierarchical ways of gathering informed by the anti-caste movement’s methodologies of reclaiming contested public & socio-cultural spaces. He is especially interested in the long-term building of equity for marginalised subaltern communities across a range of geographies. Vishal’s collaborative & independent curatorial projects have been presented at Tate Modern’s Tate Exchange Programme, Tanzfest Aarau, The Sluice Biennial & The Wrong Biennale. He is the inaugural Equity & Racial Justice Curator for 2023 & 2024 at Arts House, City of Melbourne.

    He is a recipient of the Australia Council for the Arts Transmitter Delhi X Darwin Grant, the Warehouse421 Artistic Research Grant, is a 2022-2024 Research Associate at the Centre for Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry and is currently shortlisted for the 2023 Louis Roederer Foundation Discovery Award at The Rencontres d’Arles.

  • Jyotsna’s practice spreads across institutional building, intersectionality, arts, activism, theatre and development. As an artist and actor, they also work closely with several social art spaces and collectives. Jyotsna has a Master’s in Development Studies from TISS, Mumbai, and Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. They were the recipient of the Chevening Scholarship, British High Commission (2014). In 2020, Jyotsna was featured in the 40 under 40 by Edex and New Indian Express, and the advisory board of Feminism in India, The Rights Collective UK, Giving Tuesdays and the CPA Project. Their work has featured in the Times of India, The Hindu, UN Women, The YP Foundation, Feminism in India, Smashboard, Ashoka Literature Festival, Indian Express, Mid- Day, The Rights Collective, Feminism in India, The Swaddle, The Citizen, Spielart Theatre Festival, Documenta fifteen, India Culture Lab, Grazia, News18, Khirkee Voice, and Khoj.

Social Design and Inclusive Institutions

March 2, 2023, Time: 5-6 PM IST

For the first session of Circle Back, Sudarsana Kundu spoke with Sandhya Naidu Janardhan to explore the concept of social design. Can social design provide us with a model for inclusivity across institutional frameworks?

  • Sandhya is the Founder and Managing Director of Community Design Agency (CDA), a social enterprise that envisions an inclusive world where every human enjoys access to vibrant, safe and healthy spaces to live, work and play. For Sandhya, spatial equity is inextricably linked to dismantling systemic issues including gender, social and health inequity, climate vulnerability, economic inclusion and identity. 

    Most of Sandhya’s 15 year professional career has been about cultivating processes that provide marginalised communities with clear agency and voice over where and how they live. Her participatory methodology is rooted in intentional deep listening and empathy, democratising access to architecture and design.

    Licensed and educated in India, Sandhya is also a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She is a TEDIndia Fellow, a Young Climate Prize Design Champion and a Regional Leader, Placemaking India. Sandhya’s previous work spans multiple countries, in both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors - including landscape architecture and design for a Singapore-based interdisciplinary design firm, and post-earthquake reconstruction in Haiti for a US Based non-profit.

  • Sudarsana Kundu is the Managing Trustee of Gender at Work India. She is an experienced gender equality specialist with a demonstrated history of working in both the development sector and the private sector. Through her work leading UN Women’s programmes on gender and governance, she has worked with governments and CSOs across the globe, providing recommendations on enhancing service delivery for women. Sudarsana has excellent management, strategic and financial planning skills, and is passionate about nurturing a new generation of feminist leaders. She holds a Master’s in Public Administration focused in Economic and Political Development from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. She is also an active Board Member of Nayi Disha, a not-for-profit focused on empowering parents who have children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.