Prof. Vindhya

U. Vindhya, Ph.D. is a former Professor of Psychology and Deputy Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad campus. Her research concerns are located in the broader field of gender studies, and in the interface of psychology and feminism in particular, focusing on gender-based violence, women’s mental health, and the psychology of women’s political activism. Apart from publishing widely in national and international refereed journals, her publications include the co-edited Handbook of International Perspectives on Feminisms: Psychology, Women, Culture and Rights, (New York: Springer, 2011) which won the 2012 Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology (USA).

She initiated and was the first Project Director of the TISS Hyderabad-Department of Women Development and Child Welfare, Govt of Telangana collaborative project, Sakhi One Stop Centers, a govt scheme to provide integrated services to women and girls affected by gender-based violence. Some recent major sponsored research projects include:

• Plan India and Mahita sponsored project on Conditional Cash Transfer Schemes and Child Marriages in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana: An Exploratory Study, 2019 [principal researcher]
• Tata Trust commissioned research project on Farmers’ suicide and psychosocial intervention in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, 2019 [principal researcher]
• International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) sponsored Women’s Collectives and Addressing Intimate Partner Violence: An Institutional Analysis of the SERP Model in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. 2017
• TISS-London School of Economics sponsored Marriage or Trafficking? The Phenomenon of ‘Sheikh Marriages’ in Hyderabad. 2016 [principal researcher]
• World Bank commissioned project Responding to Gender-based violence: The Story of Social Action Committees in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 2015. [co-researcher]
• Gates Foundation sponsored Unpacking Sex Trafficking among women and girls in Andhra Pradesh, 2010 [principal researcher]
• UGC sponsored Domestic Violence in Andhra Pradesh: Response of the Criminal Justice System, 1998

She has been a recipient of:

• South Asian Visiting Scholarship at Oxford University, U.K.
• Fulbright Visiting Lectureship, U.S.A.
• Visiting Professorship, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
• Visiting Lectureship, Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary

She was past President of the National Academy of Psychology (India). A regular contributor to a weekly column in a Telugu newspaper (Andhra Jyoti) on women’s mental health issues, she is a Consulting Editor, Psychological Studies (Springer), and Feminism and Psychology (Sage). She has supervised 11 Ph.D. and 12 M.Phil. dissertations. She is a member of Internal Committees in non-governmental and corporate organizations, Curriculum Advisory Boards in several universities, and conducts training programs on gender sensitization, basic counselling skills for educational institutions, police and paramilitary, media, industry, and NGOs.