Harsh Mander

Harsh Mander, fifty-five, social worker and writer, is a member of the National Advisory Council. He is also the founder of the campaigns Aman Biradari, for secularism, peace and justice; Nyayagrah, for legal justice and reconciliation for the survivors of communal violence; and Dil Se, for street children and homeless people. He is special commissioner to the Supreme Court of India in the Right to Food case, and director, Centre for Equity Studies. For almost two decades he worked in the Indian Administrative Service in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. He is also associated with causes like tribal, Dalit and disability rights, the right to information, custodial justice and bonded labour.
He writes columns for The Hindu and Hindustan Times, and is the author of Unheard Voices: Stories of Forgotten Lives and Fear and Forgiveness: The Aftermath of Massacre published by Penguin India. Other books include The Ripped Chest: Public Policy and Poor in India and his co-authored Untouchability in Rural India. Harsh has taught in the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; St Stephen’s College, Delhi; California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco; LBS National Academy of Adminsitration, Mussoorie; and the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, among others.
He lives in Delhi with his wife and daughter.