Experts

Leela Visaria was a director of the Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad, India, from 2002 to 2004, and has been professor at the same Institute since 1987. A Princeton University-trained demographer, her research interests include historical demography as well as field-based studies on health, family planning, education, and demographic transition. She has published many articles and has been a co-author or co-editor of five books. Between 1994 and 2008, she served as a coordinator of HealthWatch, a network of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and researchers that engaged in dialogue with policymakers, donors, researchers and activists on gender-sensitive population and health policy issues. Beginning March 2008, she began a two-year National Professorship awarded by the Indian Council for Social Science Research, a parent body of all social science research institutes in India. In 2009, she was elected president of the Asian Population Association.