TRUTIYA RATNA · OUR PEOPLE
The people building learning, leadership and rights, from Bihar and beyond
Trutiya Ratna is run by a small team of first-generation learners, researchers and organisers whose work and teaching are shaped by situated knowledges, drawn from their lived, educational and professional experiences.
LEADERSHIP
Founders
Trutiya Ratna was founded on the lived experience of caste, class and gender, and on the belief that a dignified life starts with education.
Sunita Vishwas
Founder & Executive Director
Researcher, educator and organiser centring the most vulnerable within Dalit communities.
Sunita Vishwas has spent over seven years working alongside women, children, Adivasi and Dalit communities across Jharkhand and Bihar. She holds a PhD in Education from TISS Mumbai, and her fieldwork includes a social audit of Bihar’s shelter homes. She has led programmes at Trutiya Ratna since its earliest days.
As a Dalit woman, she centres the most vulnerable within Dalit communities, including women, transgender persons, children and persons with disabilities. Her work focuses on school and higher education, teacher training, youth leadership and women’s rights, nurturing agency and critical consciousness among children, youth and women.
Guidance
Board Members
Scholars, activists and practitioners who guide our direction and strategy.
Sanghapali Aruna
Founder & Executive Director, Project Mukti
Sanghapali Aruna is an anti-caste and digital rights activist and NLP trainer who leads Project Mukti, a DBA and minority women-led initiative whose Zindagi Fellowship advances gender and caste equity in entrepreneurship. A founding member of BAPSA at JNU, she has helped lead campaigns such as Dalit Women Fight, Dalit History Month and Justice for Rohith Vemula, and was a prominent voice in the Dalit Mahila Swabhiman Yatra. She holds Master’s degrees in Business Administration and Linguistics, and her writing and talks on caste, gender and digital rights reach audiences in India and abroad.
Sharvari Pawar
Doctoral Scholar & UGC Senior Research Fellow, TISS Mumbai
Sharvari Pawar’s doctoral research at the School of Social Work, TISS Mumbai, examines social capital among Dalits through kinship and caste organisations. She brings a decade of experience across research, programme evaluation, public health and community work, from sanitation research at TISS’s Centre for Environmental Health to evaluation studies at Renovate India and school health programmes at Kotak Education Foundation. As former Secretary of Jagori Foundation Charitable Trust, she worked with women domestic workers and street vendors, and she has helped build a mentorship model with Nashabandi Mandal, Maharashtra.
Rhea Bose
PhD Student, Department of Education, University of Glasgow
Rhea Bose is a PhD student in the Department of Education at the University of Glasgow. Her research interests lie in trans healthcare and feminist science studies.
Day to day
Team Members
Community educators and coordinators running our Community Libraries and Knowledge Centres (CLKCs) and education programmes on the ground.
Karan Dalvi
Lead, Higher Education Programme
Associated with Trutiya Ratna since 2023, Karan Dalvi leads higher education access programmes designed to empower marginalised students through test preparation, admission counselling, and academic mentorship. He mentors and teaches students for national entrance examinations, including CUET UG/PG, APU UG/PG, SHRESTHA-NETS, and JNVST, and coordinates both their preparation and post-exam admission guidance. Parallel to his community work, he is pursuing a PhD in Political Science at Panjab University, Chandigarh, researching the Buddhist-Ambedkarite movement in Rajkot from a Gramscian perspective, and is a life member of the Bharatiya Bauddha Mahasabha.
Anguri
Community Educator, CLKC Jamui
Anguri’s own schooling was interrupted by an early marriage. Through Trutiya Ratna, she returned to education and is now completing her +2 through NIOS. Today she works as a community educator at our Community Library and Knowledge Centre in Jamui, supporting children and young learners, and she aspires to become a teacher.
Vikki
Project Coordinator
Vikki works as Project Coordinator at Trutiya Ratna, keeping our programmes running smoothly on the ground. Alongside his work, he is pursuing a Master’s in Social Work from IGNOU.
Radha
Community Educator, CLKC Jamui
Radha is a community educator at our Community Library and Knowledge Centre in Jamui, where she supports children and young learners in reading and learning. Alongside her work, she is pursuing her undergraduate degree from Munger University.
Give Time
Volunteers
Students, researchers and educators who give their time to teaching, research, compliance and outreach.
Rajika Kanungo
Volunteer · Research, POSH & Proposals
Rajika Kanungo is a researcher drawn to questions of caste, gender, indigenous rights and intersectionality. She holds a Master’s in Social Work with a specialisation in Women-Centred Practice from TISS Mumbai. At Trutiya Ratna, she supports research, conducts POSH training and helps shape funding proposals.
Hritika Wasnik
Volunteer · Donor Engagement & Compliance
Hritika Wasnik is a law candidate at NLSIU (2024–27) who supports Trutiya Ratna with donor engagement, tax research and compliance. Outside law, she enjoys swimming, tends to her growing collection of plants, and tries not to take life, or herself, too seriously.
Abia Siddiqui
Volunteer
Abia Siddiqui is a postgraduate student of English literature. She completed her graduation at Sophia College, Mumbai, and loves reading, painting and watching films.
Bishnu Narayan Mahanand
Volunteer · Curriculum & Teaching
Bishnu Narayan Mahanand is an educator and mathematics enthusiast committed to equitable, meaningful learning for rural and underserved communities. He holds a B.Sc. (Honours) in Mathematics from Sambalpur University and an Integrated B.Ed.–M.Ed. from TISS Mumbai. At Trutiya Ratna, he develops curriculum for the FLN and JNVST programmes, teaches the JNVST batch online, and contributes to social media and outreach.
Priyanka
Volunteer · Finance & Language Teaching
Priyanka is an undergraduate student at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi (2025–28). At Trutiya Ratna, she supports finance management and teaches languages to +2 students. Curious about the world, she follows politics closely, and when she isn’t studying, she’s travelling somewhere new or catching up on her favourite anime.
Prithvi
Volunteer · Education & Community Engagement
Prithvi is a Social Work student at Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, University of Delhi (2024–27), and works with Trutiya Ratna on education and community engagement. He believes society is constantly changing, and that every person deserves dignity, equality and basic human rights. Outside social work, he enjoys drawing, poetry and badminton.
Made Possible By
Partners
Organisations whose expertise and resources strengthen and amplify our work.
Project Mukti
A Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi-focused incubator working for social and economic change for DBA women and children.
How they support us
Psychotherapy sessions for our community educators, and amplifying our fundraiser during Dalit History Month.
Janman People’s Foundation
Purnia, Bihar
A non-profit working for social justice, human rights and sustainable development in Bihar. Its Jan Nyay Abhiyan provides free legal aid, fact-finding and strategic litigation for marginalised communities through district legal fellows and para-legal volunteers.
How they support us
Legal aid.
Bookworm Goa
Goa
A not-for-profit library organisation with two decades of library work with children. It runs the TISS-certified Library Educators Certificate course and the Library Mentoring Support (LMS) programme for library organisations across India.
How they support us
Trained our library educators through the LMS programme and supported our libraries with resources.
I Am Wellbeing
Delhi NCR
An organisation of mental health professionals providing trauma-informed support to vulnerable children and young people, and training caregivers, teachers and practitioners.
How they support us
Trained our community educators and volunteers to conduct a trauma-informed research survey.
Bahujan Economists
A collective and platform for researchers, scholars, students and professors from SC, ST and OBC communities in economics to collaborate and support each other. Started by students at the Delhi School of Economics, it works to increase Bahujan representation in economics research and bring Bahujan perspectives into the discipline, and supports students through classes, trainings and mentorship.
How they support us
Amplify our fundraisers on their social media platforms, and guide our students on pursuing an MA or PhD at universities abroad.
Give your time in Bihar
Trutiya Ratna runs on community support. Volunteer at a centre in Aurangabad, Jamui, Jehanabad or Patna, or partner with us.