RAHI is a deeply personal organization, founded by Anuja Gupta and Ashwini Ailawadi. They lead the team which is made up of both survivors and non-survivors, all of whom have same vision and goal – to end incest/CSA and to create a safe support space for survivors.
Founder and Executive Director
Anuja Gupta, RAHI’s Founder and Executive Director, is one of India’s leading experts on the issue of incest/child sexual abuse. In 1996, at a time when no one in the country was talking about this taboo subject, Anuja started the pioneering non-profit RAHI (Recovering and Healing from Incest) Foundation, India’s first incest/child sexual abuse response organisation. RAHI’s work has laid the foundation for this issue to come to light and continues to shape the way it is addressed in the country. Anuja is an Educator, Trainer and Therapist in the area of incest/child sexual abuse. She designs and conducts training with mental health professionals, students, parents, teachers, counsellors and social workers. She lectures and presents extensively on the subject at universities, schools, conferences, NGOs and other forums in the country and abroad. She conducts individual and group therapy with adult survivors and their families.
Anuja has helped start incest survivor groups in India. She functions as an advisor and consultant to organizations and individuals working on child sexual abuse, domestic violence and trauma. She was part of the national core team that has drafted the recently passed law ‘The Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Bill, 2011’. She guides and supervises student research, and media, film, book and communication projects on the subject. She is widely covered in the media and gives interviews to, and is part of news stories, talk shows and panel discussions on TV, in the print media and on radio. Anuja appeared as the subject expert on actor Aamir Khan’s highly acclaimed TV show Satyameva Jayate. Interviews with her and RAHI’s survivors formed the main research for the show.
Anuja Gupta has been awarded the Ashoka Innovators for Public Fellowship and now serves on their Selection Panel. Since 2008, she is an Ashoka Fellow Ambassador. She is a process worker and a Fellow of the Sumedhas Academy for Human Context, a process work institute. She is a member of The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) and in the internationalization task force of ISSTD. She is a past Fellow of the MacArthur Population Innovations Program. A former French teacher, Anuja has worked in the human rights and development sector for the past 20 years and has been involved in the issues of child rights, women and violence, HIV/AIDS and sexuality.
Co-Founder and Director
A former Addiction Counsellor, Ashwini came across incest/child sexual abuse in his practice in the early nineties. His recognition of this as a crucial issue that needs to be addressed, and his vision around it, was instrumental in the formation of RAHI as India’s first incest/child sexual abuse response organization in India. He is RAHI’s Programme Consultant and Communications Manager. His role is to oversee the functioning of all of RAHI’s programs, and includes conceptualising and shaping them. He is specifically in charge of Communication work and the Editor of RAHI’s publications, notably the book of survivors’ personal testimonies ‘The House I Grew Up In’, the first of its kind in India. RAHI’s path-breaking play ’30 Days of September’, written by Mahesh Dattani and directed by Lillette Dubey, was Ashwini’s brain child as part of the communication strategy of mainstreaming the issue of incest/child sexual abuse through creative means. Ashwini runs the RAHI media survivor team that comprises survivor in recovery who are trained by him to talk to the media. He worked closely with actor Aamir Khan’s research and production team for the child sexual abuse episode on the highly acclaimed TV show Satyameva Jayate. He is involved in the design of our training modules and also functions as a co-trainer.
Ashwini has a background in journalism and has worked with some of the leading newspapers and magazines in the country. He has trained as an Addiction Counsellor with The Caron Foundation, (Reading, Pennsylvania), and has over 17 years of experience in working with therapeutic communities and specialized in working with families and Adult Children of Alcoholics. He has also been a trainer with L.E.N.S. (Leadership Effectiveness and New Strategies), a management and training consultancy firm affiliated to the Institute of Cultural Affairs (Chicago) and conducted vision and leadership programs with Corporate and business houses. He has also been actively involved in HIV/AIDS activism and has played a key role in bringing out publications on the issue.
Office Manager
Jaina Shrivastava is the Office Manager at RAHI. She manages all administrative work, maintains the database of all activities of RAHI, and provides administrative support to ensure that municipal operations are maintained in an effective, up to date and accurate manner. Jaina also maintains confidential records and files and performs other office operations related duties as required.
Jaina has a Bachelors of Arts degree in Programmes from Delhi University and Post Graduate in Business Administration specialising in Human Resource and Operations from IMT Ghaziabad. Prior to RAHI, she worked for two years in similar fields. She is passionate about human rights and issues around female sexuality. Her interest is interacting with children and the creative pursuit.
