CHETNA Team

As a Director of CHETNA, Pallavi Patel leads and guides the project and administration team to achieve the vision and mission of the organization. She is a founding member of CHETNA. Formally trained as a nutritionist, she has experience of 37 years of addressing the issues related to the health and nutrition of women, young people, and children from a gender perspective. She oversees the effective day to day operation of the organization including planning, implementation, execution, and evaluation of the projects. Her special interest is in adolescent health, health communication and maternal and child nutrition. She advocates for gender sensitive and comprehensive programmes and policies at the State and National level. She has presented and published papers at State, National and International levels. She has contributed in a book – Health Actions for Women Practical Strategies to mobilize for Change and Where Women have No Doctor published by Hesperian Foundation in February 2015 and Forth Printing 2010 which is translated in several international languages. She has provided consultancy to various NGOs in the baseline survey, strategic planning, and evaluation of the programmes.

Vd. Smita Bajpai has a Bachelor’s degree in Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery.  As a Project Director, she coordinates projects related to maternal and child health and nutrition.  She has participated in several International and National courses including an International Course on Project Cycle Management at Nanjing, China.  She has to her credit a Ford Foundation Fellowship at the International Centre for Research on Women, Washington DC. She represents CHETNA as an executive committee member of the White Ribbon Alliance India. She coordinates the activities of SuMa-Rajasthan White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood anchored by CHETNA since 2002.  She has made presentations in several International, National, and State level meetings and conferences. Her core competencies include design and implementation of programmes, development of IEC material and training modules.

Dr Neeta Shah is a Homoeopathic doctor by profession and working in the field of social development and public health since last 19 years. She has more than 15 years of training experience in the field of Nutrition, SRH, Life Skills education, and HIV. At CHETNA,  she is coordinating the adolescent health and development programme. Her key expertise is in program planning and management and research. She played an important role in mainstreaming the approaches and health communication material developed as a part of CHETNA’s adolescent health programmes in  Gujarat State government programme –Mamta Taruni. As a part of this process, she trained a pool of service providers in Sabarkantha districts who are in turn are imparting health education among the school going adolescents. She collected voices of young people to feed in the process of National Youth Policy Formulation. She has presented the work of CHETNA especially in adolescent health at the State, National and International levels.   

Tarnistha Ray has done graduation in Public Health from Leeds University (United Kingdom), having 14 years experience of working in the health and social care sector. She has worked with Seva Mandir Udaipur, Rajasthan and Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan  (KMVS ) Gujarat. From 2015 onwards she is working as a Project Coordinator at CHETNA. Having a deep understanding of the field reality, at present she coordinates projects related to Early Childhood Education and Development, Child Health and Nutrition. Her core competencies include project management and training. Presently she is a member of DSMB (Data Safety and Monitoring Board- DSMB) and Institutional Ethical Committee at Sewa Rural Jhagadia.

Shraddha Betai is a Master of Social Work (MSW), working in the field of development since more than 38 years. She is trained as HIV/AIDS counselor and Psycho-Social Intervention from Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai, Maharashtra- 2003. She worked as a team member while implementing the activities of CHETNA’s State Training Resource Centre of National AIDS Control Society. Presently she is investing her efforts in integration of HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health Services with special focus on Key Population. She also facilitates training on Adolescent health. Her special interest is to strengthen the Community Based Organizations who are addressing the socio, economic and health needs of the key population. She has presented CHETNA’s work related to HIV/AIDS at the State, National and International levels.

Manisha Tyagi is a professional with eighteen years of experience in non-profits. She holds a Post-Graduation in Science with specialization in Human Development from Nagpur University. She has also done certified courses from NIPCCD, Delhi and IIM, Kozhikode. She has working experience with different non-profits and civil society organizations like Nehru Yuva Kendra (Delhi), Society for applied research in Humanity (Delhi), Janvikas (Ahmedabad), and SEWA Academy (Ahmedabad). Her core competency is Project Management and training.  She has experience of managing National and International projects on issues of women empowerment and gender, human rights, informal sector, and education.

Anil Gajjar is a graphic designer associated with CHETNA since 1989. He specializes in designing health communication material especially print material and has designed for various projects of CHETNA. He has developed more than 250 teaching-learning materials in the form of interactive games, posters, pamphlets, models, etc. Some of them are mass-produced by government, corporate and NGOs to use in their existing programmes. He has showcased his paintings on Gender Equality in exhibitions at Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Goa showcasing. He is also trained in photography and film making.