Raksha Kumar

I am a multimedia journalist focusing on human rights, politics and gender. In the past six years, I have reported for the New York Times, BBC, Guardian, TIME, Foreign Affairs, The Hindu, Caravan and Scroll among others. A Fulbright Scholar, I graduated from Columbia University in 2011. As a Chevening fellow in 2015, I researched right wing ideology among South Asians in the UK. I have reported from 12 countries including Israel and the West Bank. For the past two years, I have worked in Chhattisgarh and Kashmir attempting to uncover the State's overreach and its impact on residents. I filed more than 40 stories from the region including on the impacts of mineral extraction on the Maoist movement; sexual violence by armed forces; effects of crony capitalism in tribal areas and militarisation's impact on local industry in Kashmir etc. I wrote, shot and directed a documentary film on the life of the Rationalists in India that was commissioned by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust. In March 2016, I was awarded the Chameli Devi Jain Award for outstanding media personality.