Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR)
Government of NCT of Delhi

Journal’s Advisory Board

The Children’s First: Journal on Children’s Lives has an advisory board chaired by Hon’ble Justice Madan B. Lokur (Former Judge, Supreme Court of India). The composition of the Advisory Board is given below:

Hon'ble Justice Madan Lokur, Chief Advisor: 

Justice Lokur, served as the Hon’ble Judge of the Supreme Court from 2012 until 2018, prior to which he served as the Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court and High Court of Andhra Pradesh.  Previously, he has also served as one-member-Committee to suggest improvements in the working of the Homes and organization under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection and Children) Act, 2000 and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules, 2007.

Ms. Sujatha K. Rao, Advisor

Ms. Kanuru Sujatha Rao is former Union Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. As Secretary, she was instrumental in the first ever national program for non-communicable diseases; the process for a national policy for use of antibiotics; and introducing vaccines in public health. She has represented India on boards of the WHO, Global Fund, and UNAIDS.

Mr. Alex Beard, Advisor

Currently working as a Senior Director at Teach for All, Alex has worked in education for a decade. He spent substantial time travelling the world in search of the practices that will shape the future of learning and has written about his experiences for the Guardian, Financial Times, Evening Standard, Independent and Wired. His book ‘Natural Born Learners’ is a user's guide to transforming learning in the twenty-first century. 

Ms. Enakshi Ganguly, Advisor

Ms. Ganguly has been working on issues for women, children and other marginalised groups for over 35 years. She Co-Founded HAQ: Centre for Child Rights in 1998 and was its Co-Director till August 2018. She has also been part of drafting the National Plan of Action for Children, 2005, National Policy for Children as well as served as a Member in the Planning Commission’s Steering Committee on Women Empowerment and Child Development.  

Soledad Herrero, Advisor

Ms. Soledad Herrero is currently serving as UNICEF India’s Chief of Child Protection. She has worked for UNICEF and other organizations for the last fifteen years in Latin America, Africa, India, and Headquarters in New York. During her career, she has worked on a wide range of issues in the protection and humanitarian field, including juvenile justice, violence against children, child recruitment, child labour, and child marriage. Ms Soledad is a Lawyer with a Business Administration degree and Master studies in Human Rights (University of London) and in Public Policy (Johns Hopkins University). She has published numerous articles related to human rights and humanitarian issues. 

Ms. Rushda Majeed, Advisor

Ms. Rushda is the India Representative, Bernard Van Leer Foundation Previously, she has managed Bloomberg Philanthropies’ India Smart Cities Challenge, a competition to select 100 cities for central government funding as part of the country’s Smart Cities Mission. She has led research in 11 countries for Princeton University’s Innovations for Successful Societies to analyse reforms that improve government performance and accountability. She has also served as a core team member on the re-election campaign of a two-term Member of Parliament, advised a World Bank team on case study research, and managed a global leadership programme for a New York-city based non-profit.

Shri Amit Kaushik, Advisor

Mr. Amit Kaushik is Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), India. As a former Civil Servant, he served as Director in the Ministry of Education, Government of India, he played a crucial role in drafting the Right to Education Act, and its ambitious programme called Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan.

After taking voluntary retirement from government in 2007, Amit has worked with a number of education sector organisations including Pratham, IPE Global, amongst others. He has extensive experience of working with countries such as Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria and France as UNESCO and UNICEF staff. Additionally, he has himself published several research papers in top journals.

Dr. Venita Kaul, Chief Editor/Ex-Officio Member of Advisory Board.

Dr. Venita Kaul is Professor Emerita (Education) Ambedkar University Delhi from where she retired in 2016 as Director of School of Education Studies and Founder Director of Center for Early Childhood Education and Development (CECED). Prior to this Prof Kaul was a Senior Education Specialist in The World Bank for over ten years. She was earlier in NCERT for over twenty years from where she took early retirement from the position of Professor and Head of Department of Preschool and Elementary Education. 

Shri Anurag Kundu, Chairperson, Ex-Officio Member of Advisory Board.

Mr. Kundu has wide experience of working on children’s issues with a particular focus on education issues and has been advising the Government of Delhi since 2015. He has been a key member of the team that conceptualised and implemented the nationally and internationally acclaimed education reforms of the Government of Delhi. He has chaired and been part of several key government committees such as framing the Government of Delhi’s policy on the question of “No-Detention Policy” under Right to Education Act, committee on strategic issues related to lockdown during Covid-19 pandemic, the implementation plan of New Education Policy in the state of Delhi, Right to Education State Advisory Council amongst others.  

Roles & Responsibilities of the Advisory Board:

1. Refer to the Editorial Board any best practices, experiences, ideas that need to be further documented/probed;
2. Guide the DCPCR team and the Editorial Board to strengthen their national and international presence, ensure that the Journal finds its positioning in platforms of excellence, and suggest strategies towards an ever-increasing readership; 
3. Encourage and promote the submission of high-quality manuscripts to the Journal by leveraging their relationships and networks in the sector; 
4. Suggest themes for special issues of the Journal in case there is a topic of relevance which needs exclusive attention at the time, and advice on appropriate outreach mechanisms to reach out to potential authors; 
5. Meet at least twice in a given year to review the functioning of the Journal and advise strategies for better management, outreach, etc; 
6. Any other function that is incidental to their aforementioned responsibilities.