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Varun is the Founder and Managing Director at the South East Migration Foundation. Along with strategy and fundraising, his core research and operational focus at IMN are on migration data, designing service delivery mechanisms, and the political economy of migration. Previously, he has worked on projects around digital financial inclusion, informational privacy, nutrition, industry, and competition policy. Varun has a BA in Maths from the University of Washington in Seattle and an MSc in Economics from Maastricht University.
Priyansha is the Operations & Advocacy Lead at IMN. Her current work at IMN focuses on last-mile delivery of financial services to migrant households and she leads operations at IMN’s Chalo Network. Priyansha also works on IMN’s internal migration projects around entitlements, policy advocacy and was involved in developing IMN’s Inter-State Migrant Policy Index (IMPEX). Her work has been published in journals like International Migration, The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Routledge and in media outlets like India Spend, IDR, and Firstpost. Priyansha holds a Master’s in Regulatory Governance from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and a Bachelor’s degree in social sciences from TISS, Hyderabad.
Rohini is the Research Coordinator at India Migration Now and has been involved in a number of research projects spanning emigration and overseas recruitment from India, the impact of COVID-19 on migration, migrant decision-making, and internal migration in India. She has also worked extensively with IMN’s policy projects including the Interstate Migrant Policy Index (IMPEX) and the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX). Rohini’s research interests include international migration, refugee studies, migrant integration, and the sociology of migration. Her work has been published in media outlets including Firstpost, India Spend, Business Standard, and as book chapters in academic publications such as Routledge. Rohini holds a Master’s in Development Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
Chitra Rawat is the Research and Operations Manager at India Migration Now and works on IMN’s Chalo Network, a financial inclusion initiative for low-income migrant households in India. She has previously worked on IMN’s Digital Financial Services Project, which aimed to improve the financial habits of migrant workers in the construction industry. Chitra has also worked on the Interstate Migrant Policy Index (IMPEX), a policy index assessing interstate migrant integration policy across India’s states. Her research interests include migration in the Himalayan region, at the intersection of ethnicity, geography, and gender. Chitra’s research and writing have spanned multiple topics related to migration studies – including migration in the Himalayan region, the role of gender and caste, and the impact of COVID-19 on migration in India. She holds a Master’s in Development Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
Shreya is the Communications Associate at India Migration Now and manages communication strategy, design, and execution for IMN and Chalo Network. She is a recipient of the Ideosync-UNESCO Information Fellowship 2020 and derives her passion for communications from the Communication for Social Change (C4SC) school of thought. She is an engineer turned social scientist and has previously worked with non-profits and corporates to gear their communication and CSR objectives. She has a strong interest in gender and sexuality. Her work has been published in LiveWire, Feminism In India, Youth Ki Awaz, and The Blue Divide. She holds a Master’s in Women’s Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
Nidhi is a Research Assistant at India Migration Now and has been involved in research projects in the areas of emigration, the impact of COVID-19 on migration, and internal migration in India. Her research interests include international development, international and Indian labour markets, the economics of migration, and migrant integration. Nidhi holds a Master’s in Economics from Symbiosis International University, Pune. She has previously worked as a Research Intern for the International Migration Centre-Karnataka project by Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Bengaluru.
Anirudh is a documentary filmmaker passionate about impactful storytelling focused on migration, climate change, and culture. He is keen on exploring various mediums and techniques in an effort to tell the story in the best possible way.
Shreya is an independent journalist and data analyst based in Mumbai. Over the last 3 years, she has reported extensively on issues of gender, health, and employment. She joined IMN as a data analyst and is helping the research team with analysing and visualising data.
EXECUTIVE ADVISORS
India is a Country of Migrants...
Many people realised this in April 2020 when the nationwide lockdown forced millions of migrant workers to walk back to their villages from the cities they worked in. But India has always been a country of migrants. The decade-old census data, which is the latest nationwide dataset on migration, puts the number of internal migrants in India at 450 million, an increase of 45% from 2001. While the reverse migration crisis highlighted the magnitude of migration in the country, it also highlighted the need for government policies to shift the assumption that most Indians are static and address the needs of a population on the move. Globally, multiple studies document the role of migration in alleviating poverty and contributing to the host and home economies. In India, a lack of reliable data and research meant a limited understanding of these impacts.
For the poorest households, the invisibilisation in the policies also meant barriers to access government subsidies and benefits. At IMN, we aim to address this gap and facilitate the need for better policies, products, and services for migration. We want to cut through the noise, better quantify and understand the nature and impact of migration in India, and help make migration a beneficial choice in India.
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