Dr. Manisha Gupte

Co-Convenors
Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal (MASUM), Pune

Manisha Gupte has been part of the women's and health rights movements in India since the mid 1970s. She has studied Microbiology and Sociology. Her PhD thesis was on the concept and practices of patriarchal honour and how it intersects with caste, sexuality, violence and the agency of subordinated women. She co-founded MASUM, a rural women's organisation, in 1987, after living in a drought prone rural area of Maharashtra state for five years, and has been its Co-Convenor since then. She spent one year in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore as a Visiting Fellow.

She is associated with progressive organisations nationally, regionally and internationally as an advisor, board member or trainer. She is actively involved in capacity building related to the CEDAW in countries in the Asia Pacific region. Manisha has participated in and has promoted campaigns related to reproductive, sexual and minority rights, and gender based violence over the past four decades. She has worked on policy issues with the state and central governments in India over the past three decades.