Team

Urasmita joined the ECF team as a Communications and Fundraising Associate. As a communication lead, she is managing social media platforms, and building a good communication strategic prospect for more expansion of our mission. Including to focus on fundraising efforts, to develop and manage partnerships for organisational growth. Furthermore, have six years of expertise working with adolescents with different education and community settings. Specialised in providing mentorship through life skill education programs, providing skill-based training, building leadership learning experiences, raising capacity-building programs, and designing content. With ECF she shares a strong connection with the vision and embraces the environment within the team.

She cultivates her propensity to continue learning and evolving. Her favourite place to be is around plants, and her most warm and safe space is her furry companion Roy. She is a strong believer of wellness and mental health, as well as self-care.

Ashish holds a Bachelor of Social Work and brings field experience in rural development, women’s empowerment, and community mobilisation. He has worked on forming self-help and entrepreneurship groups, facilitating access to government schemes for village development, and supporting sustainable livelihood initiatives.

He has also contributed to public health programmes, conducting HIV and TB awareness and testing initiatives with women in sex work and other vulnerable communities, and providing counselling and support to women living with HIV.

Having grown up in a village, Ashish has a grounded understanding of rural realities and community values. After completing his higher secondary education, he moved to Pune to pursue his studies in Social Work, further strengthening his commitment to social development.

At Equal Community Foundation, he conducts community sessions on gender equality with adolescents, encouraging critical thinking, challenging stereotypes, and promoting respect and equal opportunities.

Leenakshi holds a master’s degree in Social Work and brings an experience of mentoring the students belonging from healthcare sector. Currently she is holding a position of Programme Executive at ECF. Her position at ECF is linked to each department, therefore she enjoys working with everyone and learning new skills through the tasks. According to her, she is glad for the opportunity to learn photography from our contributing photographer Alex! Leenakshi enjoys meeting new people while discovering about their humour.

While working with ECF, she belives that one should not look at doing household chores as a help, but rather, it should be equally distributed to each member in the house as it’s everyone’s responsibility.

She enjoys spending her free time at home, listening to music.

Shivraj is presently working as a Programme mentor, now he is role model for the adolescents with whom he conducts the sesions in the community. Shivraj is a graduate of AfE himself and he supports other graduates to continue working for gender equality in their communities.

Shivraj loves to chat with his friends and mixes with new people easily. He recently became a father and intends to be an involved parent and caregiver to his daughter, breaking the norms that hold only a mother responsible for raising a child.

Ramesh began his journey in social work with hands-on experience in grassroots projects, from natural resource management to community health initiatives. Over the years, he has built extensive experience in youth engagement, mentoring, and counselling, shaping a career committed to creating positive social change. With over a decade of experience in community-focused initiatives, Ramesh brings a unique blend of field expertise, mentoring skills, and programme management.

He currently works as Programme Coordinator at Equal Community Foundation, focusing on alumni engagement, programme planning, and community outreach, while guiding young people in developing leadership and promoting gender equality.

Beyond his professional work, Ramesh enjoys spending time connecting with people, having meaningful conversations, and learning from different perspectives. He believes that every interaction is an opportunity to understand, inspire, and grow.

In recent years, Rohit undertook his journey as an Office Executive with our team. Despite facing life challenges that forced him to leave his education in the middle, Rohit gained that confidence once more with our team’s support to ‘RESTART’ his educational journey. Rohit stated, “The team development activities help me to understand the true meaning of equality, and discard the old beliefs about gender”. He often talks about the use of rights-based language and strongly believes in everyone’s right to freedom. Rohit has a natural flair for computers, and his quick learning attitude has enabled him to acquire valuable skills through his involvement with the M & E team. His meticulous attention to detail and diligent work ethic significantly contribute to the team’s collective efforts.

Beyond the office, Rohit finds joy in maintaining his physical fitness at the gym and spending time with his mother. He is deeply passionate about all programme activities and also engages in volunteer contributions to such work.

Lakshmi, fondly called Lakshmi Aunty, is among the oldest employees at ECF who joined when ECF was formed. Hers is the first greeting as you enter the office every morning. From the upkeep of the office furniture to the well-being of the entire team, she sees to it all as her personal responsibility. Driving up and down 14km every day, she finds her motivation in the respect with which she is treated by the team and the warm “family wali feeling”, says Lakshmi.

Lakshmi has picked up reading and writing and is now able to send her daughter messages on the phone. She loves cooking and has newly discovered her love for shopping online.

Sudakshina brings several years of programmatic experience with organisations such as NASSCOM Foundation, Global Communities and Concern India Foundation. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work and presently heads Research, Development and Evaluation and Project Raise at ECF. Her aim to reduce gender based violence and bring about gender equality in the society aligns with the mission of ECF and she takes her learning from the programme to apply in her personal life. Using multiple monitoring tools to assess ECF’s gender transformative programme, Sudakshina is fascinated by how the programme is evolving and becoming increasingly relevant through continuous innovation and experimentation.

Sudakshina is a voracious reader and loves to write and paint. After hours she can be found on stage enacting self-written and self-directed plays. She has recently been promoted to being a mother and looks forward to manage her professional and personal responsibilities with equal expertise.

Priyanka holds a Master’s degree in social Work with specialising in Family & Child development, she also completed Women’s study course. She brings two years of community-based experience to her work as a Community Social Worker. It was while she was working on education for girls in Pune’s ASHA: Action for Self-Reliance + Hope + Awareness when she first began to feel the need to work with boys particularly on gender based violence and discrimination. She realized that without addressing the attitude of men and boys, the work on women’s empowerment could not be holistic. currently she is holding a Programme Associate position, Mainly she is focusing in Monitoring & Evaluation and Programme Faciliatation.

Priyanka exudes positivity and brings stability to her team with her calm and collected nature. In her spare time, she is always up for a game of chess.

One of ECF’s longest-running players, Pravin has been associated with ECF for over 13 years. Specializing in Rural Development, he holds a Master’s degree in Social Work. He is NET-qualified and currently pursuing LLB. In the team, he is managing the program, his primary responsibilities include program development, facilitation, curriculum design, and team development.
There are three things he mentions that motivate him to continue his work with ECF day after day. ECF’s vision is close to his heart as he imagines a world free of Gender Based Violence and is proud to be associated with its work with boys. Second is the space for creativity in that he gets to explore new ideas and innovative ways of working. Thirdly, he smiles, ECF feels like home.

Always full of questions with endless possibilities, chai with Pravin turns out to be a most interesting affair. When not asking questions, he loves playing chess and watching movies.