Brief Bio Profile
College for Women, University of Delhi
The Principal's Desk
Prof. Bijayalaxmi Nanda
Principal
Prof. Bijayalaxmi Nanda, Principal of Miranda House and Professor in the Department of Political Science, Miranda House.
She has received the Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators Award (FNIEA) 2025-26.
Her research interests include gender, political theory and human rights. Her publications include, Discourse on Rights in India: Debates and Dilemmas (Co-editor), (Routledge, London, 2018), Sex-Selective Abortion and the State: Policies, Laws and Institutions in India (HarAnand, 2018), Understanding Social Inequality: Concerns of Human Rights, Gender and Environment (Co- editor) (Macmillan, 2010) and Human Rights, Gender and Environment (Allied , 2006). She has numerous articles in reputed journals to her credit. She is currently working on the issues around declining child sex ratio, sex selection, gender, policy and governance. She is the general editor of Shakti Books, a series on writings on gender issues by Har Anand Publications.
She has assisted various state governments in drafting policy related to women and girl child. As a policy analyst she has extensively analysed the public policies relating to family planning, human trafficking, Conditional Cash Transfers for the girl-child, housing for women, etc. In addition, she has provided technical assistance on gender issues to UNFPA, UNDP, UNIFEM and WHO, apart from a score of Non-Government Organizations in India. She was the Project Director of ICSSR project titled "Declining Child Sex Ratio and Violence Against Women: Examining Girl-Child Discrimination in India".
She is actively associated with a number of government and non-government organisations as advisor on gender, policy and advocacy programmes for the youth. She was a member of the Academic Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) and a member of the Advisory Committee on PC-PNDT Act of the Government of NCT of Delhi. She has been a research advisor to the National Commission for Women (NCW) and was a member of the core committee on the issue of sex- selective abortion, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. She was also the external member of IIC of two organisations - Johnson and Mathey and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI).
She is a recipient of the ICSSR Doctoral fellowship and the Delhi University Vice Chancellor's Teacher's Excellence Award in 2017.
She received the Aalekh Foundation Women Achievers Award 2024, SecondAct Award for women from SecondAct in 2024 and Shiksha Seva Samman (2024) for her outstanding contribution to education from Delhi Teachers’ University.
Professor Nanda has been actively participating in international and national conferences and seminars and facilitating exchange programmes for global academic linkages. She has been continuing her research on Indian feminisms, plurality and conviviality.
In addition to her academic achievements, Professor Nanda is an avid creative writer. Her recent book, Thirty-One Pandemic Letters of Loss and Love, has garnered widespread appreciation, and her forthcoming collection of poems, Of Mothers and Daughter, is highly anticipated.