Vithika Yadav

I was referred to THNK by Michele Ernsting.

I am a human rights professional, with over ten years of experience of working on human trafficking, modern day slavery, sexual rights and gender rights.

In 2007 I was awarded the Atlas Corps Fellowship in the category of young rising leader and development professional from India to serve in the USA. In 2012 I was awarded as one of the Top 99 under 33 young foreign policy leaders in the world by Diplomatic Courier and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy in USA. Over the years, I have worked for premier organizations such as UN Office on Drugs and Crime, BBC World Service Trust, Free the Slaves and MTV EXIT.

In 2012 my work ‘Standard Operating Procedures for rehabilitation work with victims of human trafficking, sexual violence and abuse’ was selected as a best practice model which allowed me to represent India at the 2^nd World Conference on Women’s Shelters, held in Washington DC. Both nationally and internationally, I am seen as an expert on survivor care and protection services, and in this context I am focused on advising NGOs/INGOs regarding how to create rights-based programs of recovery through which women and girls can emerge from being victims to being human rights advocates in their own right.

Currently I work for Radio Netherlands Worldwide as the Head of India Operations on the Project Love Matters, which is the first ever website in India to give complete, honest and unbiased information on love, sex and relationships in India in both Hindi and English language. Through the project, I have been articulating the compelling value of the work on sexuality and sexual health issues, assessing and understanding community/target audience needs, creating content to be culture specific, helping fight myths, misconceptions and stereotypes and setting standards of promising practices, exploring strategic multi-stakeholder partnerships and envisioning sustainable impact of the program.

In year 2013, Love Matters won the Award for Excellence & Innovation in Sexuality Education from the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS).