Speakers

• Damini Sakha Driver
  

  Damini

  Sakha Driver

  “My journey has been a story of my transformation from a timid girl to a confident professional,
  navigating both roads and life with unwavering strength and independence.”
  Damini has been working as a Sakha Driver for 2 years and holds a heavy vehicle driving license. She resides with her parents and two siblings, who are pursuing their education. With exceptional professional skills, she is now preparing to work as a trailer truck driver with a Hungary-based Transport Company named Baton Transport. She dreams of supporting her family financially, building her own house and fulfilling all her aspirations.

• Heather Allen Independent Consultant on Gender and Urban Transport
  

  Heather Allen

  Independent Consultant on Gender and Urban Transport

  Heather has more than 20 years international of experience and is a highly regarded expert in gender, urban transport, sustainable development and climate change. She worked at UITP, the International Association of Public Transport with members and as Program Director for Sustainable Transport with the UK Transport Research Laboratory’s Sustainable Transport Group. Since becoming an independent consultant, her projects include a major international review of women’s personal security, gender and urban transport, and ongoing work on case studies in the People’s Republic of China, the Philippines, Chile, Ecuador and Argentina working with local universities and civil society.

• Kirtee Shah
  

  Kirtee Shah

  Ar. Kirtee Shah is the founder president of India Habitat Forum (INHAF), a twenty year old national network of habitat professionals and civil society organizations; founder chairman of Home Losers’ Service Association of Ahmedabad (HOLSAA; set up following the earthquake in Gujarat in 2001); president of Banglore based Institute for Cultural Research and Action (ICRA) for the past 30 years; one of the founders of the Ashoka Innovator for the Public, which now has a presence in more than 90 countries of the world and is engaged actively with the institutional development activities of Citynet and Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR).

  As a member of the Prime Minister appointed National Commission on Urbanization (NCU) in the mid 80’s, he chaired a Working Group on Urban Poverty in India. Founder Director of Ahmedabad Study Action Group (ASAG; an NGO he set up with other likeminded colleagues and leads for the past 48 years) he was president of Habitat International Coalition for a decade in the mid ‘90s (HIC; a global coalition of civic groups, activists and professionals working on the housing rights and the people-centred urban development).

  He has been on several committees set up by the Planning Commission of India; was on the Board of Directors of Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO ), and has consulted with the UN agencies, the World Bank, Cities Development Initiatives for Asia (CDIA) and others.

  He was associated, as an advisor, with the GOI’s 50,000 houses project for the war victims in Sri Lanka and Chaired a Committee, set up by Hudco, for the Rejuvenation and Strengthening of the Building Centres Network in India.

  He is Chairman and Chief Architect of Ksa Design Planning Services Pvt Ltd., an Ahmedabad based firm of practicing architects, with projects in various parts of the country and outside.

• Neha Prakash Programme Specialist on Gender Based Violence, ITF
  

  Neha Prakash

  Programme Specialist on Gender Based Violence, ITF

  Neha Prakash, ITF Programme specialist on gender-based violence, has been working on women’s rights for the last 14 years. Neha works with women leadership in male-dominated transport unions globally to support and build safe and equal workplaces and address the systemic exclusion of women from decent jobs in transport. Neha is leading the ITF campaign on ILO Convention 190 to envision and structure a strong political campaign for ratification and effective implementation of this convention.

• Sanjay Biswal General Manager, CRUT
  

  Sanjay Biswal

  General Manager, CRUT

  Mr Sanjay Kumar Biswal is a General Manager, Operations & Maintenance at CRUT and has initiated several transformative changes. He led the transformation of “Sarathis” to become “Mo Bus captains,” providing essential training in collaboration with Driving Training Institute Chaatia, Odisha. Under his visionary leadership, CRUT continues to innovate in the digital realm and actively contributes to the government’s initiative in procuring 350 electric buses through the PM Ebus sewa scheme of Government of India promoting sustainable and environmentally friendly public transport solutions.

• Sheela Sanjay Women's organizing secretary, Maharastra State Transport Kamgar Sangathana
  

  Sheela Sanjay

  Women's organizing secretary, Maharastra State Transport Kamgar Sangathana

  Sheela Sanjay Naikwade is the women’s organizing secretary of Maharastra State Transport Kamgar Sangathana and a Women’s committee member of ITF. For the last twenty-five years, she has been working for women’s issues in the road transport sector. She has been fighting for women drivers and conductors issues and has been successful in achieving fruitful results. She has been working for causes such as three months of additional maternity leave for women conductors, sanitation facilities and restrooms at every depot, health and safety issues and reservations to women members in the union structure.

• Shrinivas Rao National Lead, Azad Foundation
  

  Shrinivas Rao

  National Lead, Azad Foundation

  Shrinivas Rao is a feminist social worker with years of grassroots experience working on citizen
  leadership, participatory local self-governance and organization development. He has implemented some innovative participatory city planning and leadership development programmes in urban context. Shrinivas is a national Lead at Azad Foundation and working closely on issues of masculinity and gender justice. He has done M.Phil. (Economics) from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

• Sonali Vyas Associate Director, Safetipin
  

  Sonali Vyas

  Associate Director, Safetipin
• Stefanie Holzwarth Programme Management Officer, UN-Habitat
  

  Stefanie Holzwarth

  Programme Management Officer, UN-Habitat

  Stefanie Holzwarth works as a Programme Management Officer in UN-Habitat’s Urban Mobility team. She is trained in geography and urban planning and has been working on sustainable mobility projects for more than 8 years, providing policy support, and technical advice and strengthening the capacity of governments around the world on multi-modal transport systems in the context of better urban planning. Previously she worked on urban development projects in Egypt and South Africa with the support of the German Development Agency (GIZ).