COALITION MEMBERS
STEERING COMMITTEE
The Steering Committee of MIRA offers direction, selects projects, sets goals, identifies risks, and monitors timelines. The Steering Committee meets once every 2 months.
Indu Netam
Convenor, Adivasi JAN VAN ADHIKAR manch
Indu Netam from Markatola in Kanker district (Chhattisgarh) became a social activist at a very young age of 14. She led a revolutionary movement against the mining companies that had entered her village for mining sillimanite and kyanite. She works for the rights, self-esteem, and survival of Adivasi life and culture, especially addressing the issues of the Baigas and others who are now called PVTGs. She is the Convenor of the Adivasi Jan Adhikar Manch and President of Adivasi Samata Manch.
Sandeep Kumar Pattanaik
Centre For Public Policy Alternatives (CPPA)
Sandeep Kumar Pattnaik works with the Centre For Public Policy Alternatives (CPPA) in Odisha. He is currently engaged in undertaking capacity-building programmes on people-centred advocacy, action research, writing policy and legislative briefs on the rights of tribals, Dalits, women, children and landless labourers over land, forest and other natural resources. He is involved in undertaking research and organising public hearings of the displaced persons by mining, dams and industrial expansion, conducting fact-finding studies on the forced eviction of indigenous people from their land and also filing cases in non-judicial redress forums. He is a steering committee member of the International Campaign for the Ratification of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic Social Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Rana Sengupta
Managing Trustee and CEO, Mine Labour Protection Campaign (MLPC) Trust
Rana Sengupta is the Managing Trustee and CEO of Mine Labour Protection Campaign (MLPC) Trust. He began his career with Oxfam as a Campaign Manager for MLPC. His leadership steered the organisation to register itself and grow from being a campaign office to an organisation that empowers lakhs of mineworkers, besides working towards environmental justice and policy change. Today he spearheads MLPC’s overall operations.
Avinash Chanchal
Climate Campaign Manager, Greenpeace India
Avinash Chanchal works with Greenpeace India as a Climate Campaign Manager and writes on issues related to development, air pollution, climate and environmental issues and the environment from a justice point of view. He is the author of ‘Singrauli Files’, a tale of the struggles of the local communities against big corporations.
Himanshu Upadhyaya
Assistant Professor, Azim Premji University
Himanshu Upadhyaya is an Assistant Professor at Azim Premji University. He has previously worked as an environmental activist and researcher. He has extensively studied social and ecological issues around large irrigation dams, hydropower and mining projects, ecological impacts and governance, public finance, and accountability.
R. Sreedhar
MANAGING TRUSTEE, ENVIRONICS TRUST
Sreedhar Ramamurthi is an earth scientist and the Managing Trustee of the Environics Trust. He has co-founded the Mineral Inheritors Rights Association (MIRA), Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change, mines minerals & PEOPLE (mm&P) and the EIA Resource and Response Centre. He is also a founding Executive Member of the National Green Tribunal Bar Association. He has been actively involved in institutional and network development, research, implementation of alternate technologies and providing techno-legal support for Human Rights and Environmental Litigations.
Deme Oram
Tribal Rights Activist
Deme Oram is a tribal rights activist working mainly in Sundargarh district of Odisha. Himself a victim of the Rourkela Steel Plant, he has been ardently fighting for the rights of people and engaging the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. His work focuses on land rights of the tribals, governance in Vth Schedule areas. He leads the local community-based organisation, Anchalik Surakhya Committee and is an Executive Council member of mines mineral & People (mm&P). He is also associated with Environics Trust.
Johanna Lokhande
Programs Team Member, Azim Premji Foundation
Johanna Lokhande currently works with Azim Premji Foundation. She was the former Executive Director of the National Centre for Advocacy Studies and has nearly 15 years experience of working at the grassroots with various communities focusing on their legal rights. She began her career working with the survivors of the 2002 Gujarat riots which she continued to work for nearly 10 years, the focus of her work has mainly been on access to justice. She has conducted 5-state research with the aim to bring forth and visualise the plight of the conflict-induced internally displaced persons. In Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Assam she has worked with young lawyers to set up free legal aid centres to make access to justice possible by empowering community lawyers to take up social justice lawyering.
ADVISORY BOARD
The Advisory Board of MIRA is made up of sectoral experts who provide counsel on the coalition’s vision, principles, and themes as needed.
Nikhil Dey
Social Activist
Nikhil Dey is a well-known social activist. He works for the MKSS (Mazdoor Kishan Shakti Sangthan), Suchna Evum Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan and NCPRI (National Campaign for People’s Right to Information). He has been actively working for Right to Information, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), Lokpal Bill and Right to Food and currently demanding for a Social Accountability legislation. He has also worked with the Government of Rajasthan on its Jana Soochana programme, which aimed to implement the ‘proactive disclosure’ section of the Right to Information Act, by which the government would publish information about its work proactively and obviate any need to file RTI requests.
R. Sreedhar
Managing Trustee, Environics Trust
Sreedhar Ramamurthi is an earth scientist and the Managing Trustee of the Environics Trust. He has co-founded the Mineral Inheritors Rights Association (MIRA), Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change, mines minerals & PEOPLE and the EIA Resource and Response Centre. He is also a founding Executive Member of the National Green Tribunal Bar Association. He has been actively involved in institutional and network development, research, implementation of alternate technologies and providing techno-legal support for Human Rights and Environmental Litigations.
Avinash Kumar
Independent (formerly with Amnesty)
Avinash Kumar currently works as an Independent Consultant. He was the former Executive Director of Amnesty International India and has been in leadership positions in various civil society organisations like WaterAid India, Oxfam India and Oxfam GB. He has been part of various national and international coalitions and networks. He was a founder member of key civil society networks like Wada Na Todo Abhiyan and the Right to Education Forum in India. His main areas of interest are themes of governance accountability, access to basic rights like water, health, and education from a rights-based perspective.
Rahul Basu
Research Director, Goa Foundation
Rahul Basu is the Research Director at Goa Foundation, an environmental non-profit in Goa. He is a member of The Future We Need, a global movement to make the intergenerational equity principle foundational for civilisation. He is also an advisor to mines minerals & PEOPLE, the India Network for Basic Income, and World Basic Income. Rahul is a member of INSEE (Indian Society for Ecological Economics) and EAERE (European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists) and has published 5 papers in Economics & Political Weekly on mining and intergenerational equity.
Rakshita Swamy
lead, SAFAR
Rakshita Swamy leads SAFAR and works towards advocating and institutionalising transparency, accountability and citizen participation in governance, through her collaboration with Central and State Governments and civil society organisations over the past decade. Her work focuses on introducing platforms for enabling and enforcing accountability in diverse sectors such as public service delivery, governance in sixth schedule areas, mining, digital technology, and the functioning of public institutions. She worked with the Ministry of Rural Development with a mandate to support State Governments in implementing social audits under the MGNREGA, and drawing synergies on social audit with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. She is associated with the Right to Information and Right to Work campaigns.
Vipul Mudgal
Director and Chief Executive, Common Cause
Dr. Vipul Mudgal is the Director and Chief Executive of Common Cause, a New Delhi–based civil society watchdog which promotes democracy, the rule of law, and good governance through legal interventions, advocacy, research, and policy engagement. He has been a journalist and academic in India, the UK, and South East Asia for over 30 years. He also heads Inclusive Media for Change, a clearing house of ideas and information on India’s marginalised sections. As an activist and a media scholar, he writes and works on the intersections of media, democracy and political violence.
MIRA SECRETARIAT
Saswati Swetlena
NATIONAL COORDINATOR
Saswati Swetlena works as the National Coordinator for MIRA, where she handles policy advocacy, communication support, research, and fundraising. In her nearly two decades of social development experience, she has built a solid network comprising of nonprofits, media, and communities, enabling her to expertly undertake MIRA’s core responsibilities.
Environics Trust
HOST
Mineral Inheritors Rights Association, or MIRA, is hosted by Environics Trust. Environics Trust has been developing area-specific innovative solutions to tackle development difficulties encountered by marginalised, displaced, and disaster-affected people.