Nandita Venkatesan
India
Master of Public Policy
Martin Robinson Scholarship, Keble College
Funding: Oxford-Weidenfeld and Hoffmann/Chevening
Nandita Venkatesan is a journalist, health advocate and an Indian classical dancer. She worked for The Economic Times – India’s largest financial newspaper, where she was responsible for the ‘Companies’ pages of the edition and reported on stories on Indian healthcare system. Nandita fought a prolonged and agonising battle against two rounds of life-threatening tuberculosis, during which she had to undergo six major surgeries, was hospitalised for several months and suffered severe side effects. She lost over 90% hearing at 24 (profound deafness), due to a rare after-effect of a second-line TB drug. This experience prompted her to take up the cudgels against this infectious disease and strongly voice the need for better patient-centred care and accessibility rights for persons with disabilities. She has addressed prominent national and international forums including the 2018 United National General Assembly in New York. She also co-founded Bolo Didi, a sisterhood of TB survivors who counsel people affected by TB. Her advocacy resulted in her being named by The Lancet as ‘A Voice of Hope for TB Survivors’. Nandita holds a Bachelor’s in Mass Media from University of Mumbai and PGDip in Broadcast Journalism from Indian Institute of Mass Communication.