CORO

About CORO

Over the last three decades CORO has developed a community-based approach​​ to improving the lives of India's most marginalised and oppressed.

Our people

Our people

CORO has evolved to become a grassroots-owned organisation:​ led, shaped and managed by women and men who live and work in the communities they serve.

Team

Mahendra Rokade

Mahendra Rokade

Program Director

Mahendra joined CORO in 1989 as a literacy volunteer. He had opted out of education after 12th class, but completed his graduation in social science while working in CORO. His commitment and consistency in vision for social change has helped him to lead CORO through various stages of growth. Mahendra has been instrumental in the development of CORO’s flagship program of grassroots leadership development in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Delhi, implemented in collaboration with Leaders Quest, UK. The program has built a community of 1100+ grassroots leaders and their mentors and the network of 250+ organizations across Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Delhi.

Mahendra is now the Director of all of CORO's Programs.

Biju Bhosle

Biju Bhosle

Program Manager, Women's Empowerment Programme

Biju is one of the founder members of CORO. She’s been on a long journey – from life as an ordinary housewife to Vice President of CORO and President of Mahila Mandal Federation, the women’s group initiated by CORO. Since 1995 she has worked to strengthen the MMF and is using her 25 years of experience and leadership expertise towards its organisational development. In 2013 she was one of the first recipients of a Quest Fellowship.

Rahul Gaware

Rahul Gaware

Program Manager, CORO

Rahul grew up in a slum, and this gave him a deep understanding of his community. He has been associated with CORO since 1995 and was the recipient of one of the first Quest Grassroots Leadership Development Programme. During this programme, he led a project on youth personality development, sexuality and is employment-related issues in an urban context.

Despite his lack of early education, Rahul has graduated in Economics and completed his MBA in Social Entrepreneurship. Rahul's interests are organizational development, process management, and youth empowerment.

Mumtaz Shaikh

Mumtaz Shaikh

Program Manager, Women's Empowerment Programme

Mumtaz joined CORO in 2000 as a community volunteer for CORO’s integrated development program. She soon became the assistant counselor in program aimed at combating violence against women and girls. Her passion in dealing with violence related issues led her to be the elected secretary of Mahila Mandal Federation, a CORO initiated, community women’s organization with 10000+ strong community women as members. Mumtaz continues her work as Program Manager on violence against women and girls in Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra (supported by APPI).

Mumtaz was felicitated with ‘Daughter of Maharashtra’ award and she recently figured in BBC’s list of most influential 100 women of 2015. She was amongst 7 Indians in the list.

Sujata Lawhande

Sujata Lawhande

Program Manager, Women's Empowerment Programme

Sujata joined CORO in 1996 as volunteer in combating violence against women. She then shouldered responsibility of counselor in Counseling and Legal aid centre. Sujata in her grassroots fellowship project worked extensively on Domestic Violence Act and focused on systemic gaps in implementing this act. She developed and led a network of 30 organisations in Maharashtra working on domestic violence issues.

Sujata is currently Program Manager for women empowerment project (supported by APPI) focusing on domestic violence related issues.

Nitin Kamble

Nitin Kamble

Program Manager

Born and raised in Mumbai, Nitin has been associated with CORO for the last 10 years. During this time, he’s been a part of its intervention research into understanding gender attitudes amongst young boys and girls in the community. He has also provided support to other CORO programmes. Nitin is married and lives in northeast Mumbai with his wife Sangeeta and their son Rishi. When he isn’t working, he enjoys playing cricket, reading and spending time with his son.

Shrikant Naik

Shrikant Naik

Admin & HR Manager

Shrikant has been working with CORO for 12 years. He discovered the organisation in 1998 when he was a night college student and joined CORO’s professional course for upcoming social activists. Shrikant has since opened an organisation in his home village to help Zila Parishad schools deliver quality education and provide better opportunities for children belonging to economically weaker sections of society.

Deepchand Mali

Deepchand Mali

Program Manager, Quest Grassroots Leadership Development Programme, Rajasthan

Deepchand is a social activist with 25 years of experience in field work and NGO management across several districts of Rajasthan. He has been involved in the expansion of the Quest Fellowship Programme across the state – from initial conversation onwards.
Deepchand has an MA in Sociology and a Diploma in Rural Development.

Supriya Sonar

Supriya Sonar

Program Manager, Right To Pee Campaign

Supriya is currently leading the Right to Pee (RTP) Campaign which is advocating for safe, clean, and free public urinals for women in Mumbai and in other parts of the state of Maharashtra. This campaign was initiated and incubated by CORO. Her core areas of interest are urban planning and development.

Supriya studied Political Science in college and was awarded a gold medal during her Bachelor of Law degree from Goa University. She is currently pursuing her MA in Women's Studies in Mumbai.

Shivani Mehta

Shivani Mehta

Executive Director

Shivani Mehta, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has, over the years, handled multiple responsibilities and dealt with varied business situations. She has a diverse professional background, including in the non-profit sector, having been involved with Yuva Parivartan, a Mumbai based NGO for over 15 years. Prior to that, she has been an entrepreneur, taught in business schools and also worked with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.

Shivani was introduced to CORO in July 2020, and volunteered with CORO for a while, before joining as Executive Director in December 2020.

Kartik Ramachandran

Kartik Ramachandran

Lead - Strategy & Partnership

Having worked in the consulting/ financial services sector (PwC, SBI Capital Markets, IDFC Alternatives, Athaang Infrastructure) for 20+ years, Kartik decided to make a mid-career shift to the development sector. He was associated with CORO in 2018-2020 after being inspired by the philosophy and the approach adopted by CORO in bringing about equality in the society. From 2020-2023 Kartik was associated with CORO in an advisory capacity. Kartik is back to CORO from 2023 as Lead - Strategy & Partnership. He has an MBA from IIM Indore.

Varsha Chalke

Varsha Chalke

Finance Lead

Varsha has 15+ year of experience at Bombay Natural History Society ( Bnhs ) as Dy. Director Finance. Varsha joined CORO in 2023 and she leads the Finance team.

Sabera Thyagarajan

Sabera Thyagarajan

Lead - Digitization

Sabera brings 3 decades of experience in the arena of Technology and Human Resources. With her expertise in the technology domain and Human Resources Consulting where she helped various organizations to enhance overall organizational productivity. She also co-founded Cognigix Digital which delivers digital learning experiences. She has switched to the Development Sector to be able to contribute to areas where Digitization can be a way forward.

Board of Trustees

Luis Miranda

Luis Miranda

President, Board of Trustees

Luis founded IDFC private equity in 2002 and retired in 2010 to focus on not-for-profits in human rights, health and education. He is the chairperson of Centre for Civil Society, a trustee of the Society for Nutrition Education and Health Action (SNEHA), and a senior advisor to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure. He also sits on the advisory boards of the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago and St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.

Luis received an MBA from the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago. According to Economic Times, ‘Luis has recast himself as something of a philanthropic catalyst, using his powers of persuasion and strong business network to advocate the cause of a bunch of organisations’.

Dr. Sujata Khandekar

Dr. Sujata Khandekar

Founding Director and Secretary, Board of trustees

Dr. Sujata Khandekar is the Founding Director of CORO. She was formerly an assistant engineer in Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB), Mumbai when she was deputed for adult literacy related work initiated by the government of Maharashtra and CORO. She received MA in Gender, Education and International Development from University of London and was a fellow in Leadership Development Program of MacArthur Foundation (India).

Recently Sujata has been awarded Ph.D. for the thesis on ‘Meanings of Women’s Empowerment’. This academic research is facilitated by Sujata with seven grassroots co-researchers, by developing the research methodology ‘Feminist Cooperative Inquiry’, feminist research influenced by the cooperative Inquiry (CI) approach. Sujata has authored a book in Marathi titled “Aashevin Aasha’ (Hope without Hope) based on her community related work. She has represented CORO in national and international forums and has contributed to many publications.

Pallavi Palav

Pallavi Palav

Treasurer, Board of Trustees

Pallavi is associated with CORO since 1994. Her involvement in the community women’s reproductive and sexual health program in 2002, helped her get immersed in community based work. In 2006, she was chief coordinator of the intervention research titled ‘Sakhi Saheli’ aimed at addressing unequal gender norms to reduce violence against women and sexual risk. Pallavi then led the research (2008) titled ‘Gender Equitable Movement in Schools (GEMS)’ which aimed at sensitizing children between the age group of 12-14 years in Municipal schools in Mumbai (GEMS was a collaboration of CORO, International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Learning from GEMS is now integrated into ‘Meena Raju Manch’ a program running in 24000 primary and upper primary schools in Maharashtra implemented in collaboration of CORO, State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and UNICEF.

Pallavi currently is the treasurer of CORO as well as works as the Organisation Process Director

JM Trivedi

JM Trivedi

Trustee

JM Trivedi (JM) is based in Mumbai. He heads South Asia operations at Actis, an emerging markets private equity firm which invests in mid-market control/buyout and growth capital deals. JM joined the UK-government’s CDC (Commonwealth Development Corporation) in 1997 to establish private equity operations out of its Mumbai office, and was one of the founding partners when Actis spun out of CDC in 2004. Prior to this, JM was Senior Vice President of GVFL, one of the first VC firms in India. He has led a number of marquee deals in the PE market in India including UTI Bank, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and Paras pharmaceuticals. JM has worked in the financial services industry in India for more than 35 years. He graduated in Chemical Engineering from IIT-Bombay in 1975.

Sulakshana Mahajan

Sulakshana Mahajan

Trustee

Sulakshana is a researcher in urban and women's issues, with a particular focus on India. She has produced several papers, articles and newspaper columns, and her writing appears in both English and Marathi language publications. She is a visiting lecturer at Sir JJ School of Art and Architecture and Rachana Sansad's Academy of Architecture in Mumbai.

Vidya Kumaraswamy

Vidya Kumaraswamy

Trustee

Journalist with over 30 years' experience. She was the founding editor of Moneycontrol.com, which started as CNBC-TV18’s online platform and went on to become India’s leading financial news website. She was also the Editor in Chief of all of Network18’s business websites.

Shaila_Yadav

Shaila_Yadav

Trustee

Shaila is a development professional with eight years of work experience. She is the Founder and President of the SAMAVESHAK SAMAJIK VIKAS SANSTHA (Inclusive Social Development Institute), Aundh. She set this up five years back and is currently working with and for people from the NT-DNT community, on areas such as women empowerment, Health education and legal rights of the NT-DNT and ST communities. She s Prior to this, she has worked as a Social Worker in Swades Foundation (Agriculture, Water Education and Health) and as a taluka coordinator in Nirman Sanstha Pune. Through this, she has developed expertise in Block-Coordinator, District Coordinator coordination with local stakeholders and local governance documentation, MIS, special programs on gender equality and reduction of domestic violence against women. She is an active participant in human rights and nomadic tribal Movements She has also been part of various leadership fellowships, including our Samta Fellowship from 2019 to 2022.

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