Interim Global Manager, People and Culture
Ishani has an Undergrad degree in Political Science from Miranda House in Delhi University and then part of an MA in Women’s Studies. Other than public administration and international relations, the courses that have made them who they are today have been the ones around feminist political theory and praxis, as well as feminist science studies.
Ishani joined the CPI team in 2022.
Ishani is proud of their previous work as a teacher. They said that being responsible for the learning, well-being, safety and the hopes and dreams of 100 boys and their parents was a test of emotional and physical resilience if nothing else. But it was rewarding in ways they hadn’t expected.
They have also worked as part of an autonomous feminist collective where they organised night marches against sexist rules in universities that imposed curfews and restricted women’s movement and access to spaces outside hostels after 7:30pm on the pretext of “safety”. They said this was also a challenge to universities upholding caste-patriarchy by perpetuating the narrative of how the city has the potential to “corrupt girls from good families” and so they must be locked up at night so they can remain good and pure.
This collective was their glimpse into alternative ways of organising and being together, a space that rooted its feminism in anti-caste and anti-capitalist ways that prioritised rest, healing, community, joy and radical solidarity in the face of violence and dehumanisation.
Ishani cares deeply about people-first policies and has learnt so much from CPI in that regard. They believe that recruitments are one of the places where you see what it means to account for difference in power, and says that there’s so much we’re learning still, but it feels meaningful to them that they get to experiment with curating spaces for people (both candidates and staff) to reflect on our experiences, hopes, dreams and fears, and make explicit belief systems and biases that often guide how we respond to things.
When they’re not working, Ishani values rest and napping. As well as that, they enjoy spending time with friends, sitting by the sea and relaxing.