Ankur
Smita Sen is co-founder of Rupantaran Foundation, a non-profit based in West Bengal, promoting responsive citizenship among communities through engaged youth, adolescents and women. Among the programmes Smita leads at Rupantaran, is Ankur, a Community Jameel-supported gender and economic justice project working to revive agriculture and improve livelihoods of farmers in the Indian Sundarbans after back-to-back cyclones flooded farmlands with saline water. The project provides resilient seeds, organic farming tools and other support to women engaged in agriculture.
Prior to founding Rupantaran, Smita worked in development sector, focused on child protection, youth development, gender equity, adolescent sexual and reproductive health rights (ASRHR) and women's empowerment as a programme officer and independent consultant. Smita also founded Comics Adda, to amplify youth voices through comics.
Smita holds a master's in economics from the University of Calcutta.
