Devyani Srivastava is the Head of the Police Reforms Programme where she oversees the programme's overall research and advocacy towards an improved and accountable policing. She took over as the head in January 2021. Till then, she served as a Senior Program Officer in the programme where her main responsibilities included overseeing project activities in South Asia, and leading research and advocacy on issues such as discrimination, gender mainstreaming in policing, and police response towards Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. At CHRI, she has also closely monitored states' compliance with the Supreme Court directives on police reforms issued by the Indian Supreme Court in 2006. In particular, her work has focused specifically on the functioning of police oversight bodies namely the State Security Commissions and the Police Complaints Authorities that all states are required to establish as part of the Supreme Court directives. She has contributed to the design and delivery of several workshops and lectures on policing at educational institutions, including at police training institutions and academies; developed educational booklets; coordinated campaigns; and published several reports, policy documents and media articles.
As the head, she represents the program/CHRI as a member of the Bureau of Police Research and Developments' Micro Mission 7 on Women and Child and contributes to the Mission's research projects focusing on gender and policing. She is also a member of CHRI's team that is partnering with the National Council for Applied Economic Research in the implementation of a national crime victimization survey commissioned by the Government of India in 2019.
Previously, she worked with the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, an independent think tank based in New Delhi, where her research focused on internal security, extremism and insurgencies. She completed her Master’s Degree in International Relations from University of Warwick (UK) and Bachelors’ degree in Political Science from Hindu College, University of Delhi. She can be reached at devyani@humanrightsinitiative.org.
Sangeeta Mukherjee is currently working as Coordinator in the Police Reform Team, where she is handling all administrative related work of the police team . She has a total work experience of around 11 years. In the past, she had worked in various organisations across varied industry category. Where she had spent almost 9 years out of 11 years in administrative related assignments. Sangeeta is a post graduate in commerce from the University of Lucknow. She had also done Advance Diploma in computer application and a certificate course in Tally. She likes watching movies, gardening and listening old songs. She can be reached at sangeeta@humanrightsinitiative.org.