1. Dr. Arun Kumar
arunkumar3165@gmail.com
09920482015
A-704, Astraea, Rustomjee, Majiwada, Thane (West) – 400601
…………………………………………………………………………
Skills
• Strategy and Planning
• Program Development: Designing, Monitoring and Evaluation
• Organizational Development: Evaluation and Management
• Partnership Management and mentoring
• Communications: Creative Writing, Audio-visual media, Social Media, Branding
• Research: Conceptualization, designing, managing, and analysis
Professional Summary
Position Organization Time Period
CEO Apnalaya, Mumbai July 2014 - present
Director: Training, Research and
Alternative Communication
Committed Communities
Development Trust, Mumbai
March 2010- June 2014
Consultant Oxfam, Lucknow October – November 2009
General Manager: Youth Child Rights and You,
Mumbai
December 2005 – October 2009
Consultant: Research and Program Deshkal Society, Delhi September 2004 – February
2005; June 2005 – November
2005
Consultant: Setting up a Peace Building
Program with children and youth
Oxfam, Gujarat December 2003 –May 2004
Consultant: Education for Peace and
Justice
Ankur, Society for Alternatives
in Education, Delhi
August – December 2003
Consultant: Violence Mitigation and
Amelioration Program
Oxfam, Delhi September 1999 – April 2003
Assistant Professor: Center for Rural
Studies
LBS National Academy,
Mussoorie
February 1998 – January 1999
Consultant: Local History Lokshala
Program
Department of Education,
University of Delhi
July – December 1997
Teaching Assistant and Assistant
Professor: Sociology
State University of New York,
Binghamton
August 1992 – January 1996;
May-June 1996
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2. Work Experience
1. Leadership: Anchoring teams and organizational processes
I have just begun working with Apnalaya. My responsibilities include: strategizing and developing a
five-year road map, organizational development, team management, resource generation and
management; liaising with the Board members, program development, advocacy, and branding
Committed Communities Development Trust (CCDT)
Program Director – Training, Research, and Communication (TRAC) since March 2010
Acting CEO for a period of four months in 2013
Core responsibilities: partnership management, program development, evaluation and documentation,
development of communication material for diverse stakeholders
Achievements:
Strategized and led two national workshops supported by Plan India with over 20 Child Rights
organizations.
• The workshops resulted in
o the development of a Child Participation-based programming framework and
o the publication of Participating with Children: Dreams and Experiences. The book is
being used as a reference material at two departments of the Tata Institute of Social
Sciences, Mumbai.
• Facilitated and anchored the organizational discussion and movement towards Child
Participation-based programming
• Facilitated and anchored the strategy development process (2010-13)
• Shared strategy with the Board of Trustees, partnered with directors of program and the CEO
to roll out the new Strategy; undertook capacity building and buying-in exercise with the
Organization
• Facilitation of Strategic prioritization and Goal setting; development of Business Plan for
2014-19
• Development of JDs, recruitment, appraisal, and mentoring a team of 6; Providing oversight
and leadership to programs; Developing and managing an annual budget
Child Rights and You (CRY)
I was a significant part of all strategic processes, contributing in a leadership role, to the design,
facilitation and content of organizational processes.
• Managed national partnerships with IL&FS Education and Technology Services and 28
schools in five states to enable scaling up of programs
• Supervised and guided an eclectic team across Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and
Mumbai
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3. o Led the shift for the Youth Function from ‘doer’ to ‘enabler’ and then from ‘enabler’
to ‘forger’ of institutional partnerships for policy influencing and the inclusion of
children in societal processes
o Strategically, led the team of 11 in development and detailing of the conceptual
framework pertaining to teaching-learning methodologies and education with the
child-rights sensibilities
Oxfam
Conceptualization, designing, development and rolling out of a peace building intervention for
children and youth in Rajasthan and Gujarat after 2002
• Opened two centers, Urja Ghar, for children and youth to work on non-violence and
secularism through creative learning (using cinema, stories, and sports) in Gujarat and
Rajasthan
• Selected two local partners; provided foundational training to their key staff to execute the
program
• Continue to provide organizational development and conceptual training to Urja Ghar,
(Gujarat), which has now become an NGO working in 45 villages
As Consultant for the ‘Violence Mitigation and Amelioration Project’, I led the intervention on the
following themes: (a) Dalits and Social Conflicts (b) Women in Conflict Situations: Widows of
Political Massacres in Bihar (c) Campaign against Violence.
• Selected and capacitated a local partner to run a Legal Support Cell in Jehanabad, Bihar;
helped it mobilize a collective of lawyers to provide legal and monetary assistance to the poor
seeking legal resolution to conflicts
• Made a 35-minute documentary film, Hashiye par Zindagi [Life on the Margin] for a
campaign on violence and the widows of political massacres in Bihar
• Held a national seminar on Violence with academicians, government officials and grassroots
actors
2. Communication, Content Development, Publications, and Films
CCDT
• Visibility and branding:
o Conceptualization and overseeing the website (www.ccdt.org) social media
platforms; Brochure, Program one-pagers, Annual Reports, and News Letters
o Development of a media engagement plan
• Books, training tools, and reports:
o Developed a story-cum-coloring book, Let’s Color Our Right, on Child Rights
o Edited Participating with Children: Dreams and Experiences, CCDT, Mumbai, 2011.
A collection of 12 experiences from the fields narrating Child Participation,
achievements and challenges
o Wrote ‘Kã se Kahani’, 2011. A story-based tool on Child Rights for trainers
o Designed and supervised the documentation of Child Protection and HIV/AIDS,
State-level Consultation, with UNICEF, 2012. An advocacy material based on the
proceedings of Maharashtra state level consultation
o Designed and supervised the documentation of Non-Institutional and Institutional
Initiatives Against HIV/AIDS, with UNICEF, 2013
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4. • IEC material on the Right to Education, Child Labor, Malaria, and Health and Hygiene
CRY
• Footprints, A handbook for school teachers, on Rights, Human Rights, Child Rights,
Patriotism, Gender and Discrimination
• Developed a handbook for practitioners, teachers and teen-aged students on the use of stories
in developing a critical mind
• Managed and wrote for Crybuddies, a website-based interactive feature on various facets of
Child Rights
Deshkal Society
• ‘Culture, Development and the Cultural Capital of Farce: The Musahar Community in Bihar’,
Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XLI, No. 40, October 7, 2006.
http://www.epw.in/special-articles/culture-development-and-cultural-capital-farce.html?
ip_login_no_cache=1266da61c638bcf0f2ce9c9efe95109a An outcome of a research carried
out on socio-historical journey of the Musahar community in Bihar
• Dalit Studies in Higher Education (co-edited) 2005. An advocacy book on Higher Studies
with Dalit perspective
• ‘Politics of Syllabus: Bihar School Textbooks’, Insight Young Voices, Feb-March 2009
Oxfam
• ‘Violence and Political Culture: Politics of the Ultra Left in Bihar’, Economic and
Political Weekly, 22 November 2003. A conceptual and historical analysis of violence,
culture and the politics of the Ultra Left
Ankur
• Developed a manuscript for teachers and students on ‘Education for Peace and Justice’. It
was an outcome of a study on social conflicts related to caste and religion in five workers’
colonies of Delhi.
Media
• http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/clean-air-my-right/a-tale-of-two-cities-air-quality-in-
bengaluru-and-mumbai/372027 (Air Quality in Mumbai – Interview with NDTV)
• http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33109040 (India’s Food Subsidies - Interview with
BBC)
• http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31763970 (India’s Social Security Plan – Interview
with BBC)
• March 2008. Wrote and directed, Chal Runjhun Sapne Dekhein, a 35-minute long feature
film. The film is designed as a non-textual tool to discuss discrimination in schools.
• July 2002: Scripted and directed Land of Memories, a one-hour film on the 19th century
migration of indentured laborers from Bihar and the United Provinces to Mauritius.
• January 2001: Scripted and directed Hashiye par Zindagi (Life on the Margin), a 35-min
documentary film on violence and widows of political killings in Bihar. Apart from mass
screenings in Bihar, the film was screened at Human Rights Film Festival, New York
(March 1-3, 2003) and Asia Social Forum, Hyderabad (5-7 January 2003).
• 2000: Jointly wrote dialogues of Kali Salwar, a feature film based on Sadat Hasan
Manto’s work, directed by Farida Mehta
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5. 3. Research and Publications (select examples only)
• September – November 2013, CCDT. Headed a Situation Analysis Study of people living in
Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai, along the domains of Health, Education, and
Livelihood and its impact on Children. The Study was commissioned by Plan India
• July-August 2013, CCDT. Guided a drop-out and reenrollment study in select clusters of
Mumbai and Thane
• April-May 1999, Centre for Women’s Development Studies. Prime-moved a socio-economic
study on the fisher-folks in U.P. and Bihar, with special reference to women
• February 1998 – January 1999. Centre for Rural Sociology, Lal Bahadur Shastri National
Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. Conducted a research on concealed land tenancy and
its impact on poverty in U.P.
Select Publications
• ‘The Bogey of the Impressionable Mind’, (Co-authored with Havovi Wadia), Infochange
Education, May 2012, http://www.infochangeindia.org/education/analysis/the-bogey-of-the-
impressionable-mind.html
• Rewriting the Language of Politics: Kisans in Colonial Bihar, Delhi: Manohar Publications,
2001. (The book has been used as a reference text at Masters and M.Phil. level at History
Department, Delhi University)
• ‘Beyond Muffled Murmurs of Dissent?: Kisans in Colonial Bihar’, Journal of Peasant
Studies, (UK) vol.28, no.1, October 2000
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03066150008438759#.UuS6x9K6bs0
• ‘Gandhi and Gita: Beyond the Quest for a New Language of Politics’, in two parts, India
Perspectives, September 1999, October 1999
4. Advocacy
I have been a part of several social and policy level advocacy efforts. They include:
• HIV Bill – The proposed Bill seeks to ensure basic rights to sero-positive people; the Bill has
just been tabled in Rajya Sabha (Jan 2014)
• Maharashtra State Child Policy – An effort to frame afresh the state-level child policy
• NAFRE – From 2006 to 2009, I was a part of National Alliance for Right to Education
• BHA – From 2006 to 2009, I was a part of Bal Haq Abhiyan’s core committee. BHA was a
Maharashtra level campaign for restoring rights to the marginalized children of the State.
5. Teaching
Fall 1993 - Spring 1995. I taught Modern World System with Professor Giovanni Arrighi at SUNY-
Binghamton. The course included History of Capitalism, Race, Nationalisms, and Anti-Colonial
movements in the Third World
Summer 1995. Assistant Professor, SUNY, Binghamton. I taught an undergraduate course in
Historical Sociology, titled, A Brief History of the Modern World.
6. Training
Just completed Dasra Social Impact Accelerator Program December 2014-March 2015) – a uniquely
designed training program for organization heads interested in scaling their programs and maximizing
growth
Education
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6. Ph.D. 1998, Sociology, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York. My dissertation was
titled, An Inquiry into the Changing Language of Politics: Kisans in Colonial Bihar
M.A. 1989, History (Modern India), Delhi University, Delhi
B.A. 1986, History, Hindu College, Delhi University, Delhi
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7. Ph.D. 1998, Sociology, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York. My dissertation was
titled, An Inquiry into the Changing Language of Politics: Kisans in Colonial Bihar
M.A. 1989, History (Modern India), Delhi University, Delhi
B.A. 1986, History, Hindu College, Delhi University, Delhi
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