From India, Aanya is currently pursuing her LLB from Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, DU and has completed her PG Diploma in International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights and Refugee Law, as well as her undergraduate degree in History at Lady Shri Ram College for women.

Aanya is a US Department alumna and was a SUSI scholar, being one of the four girls nominated to represent India for a fully-funded women’s leadership fellowship with the US Department of State. She has worked to defy odds not only to empower women but to shatter stereotypes, having received the HT She Slays Award for Social Cause and the LinkedIn Top Voice for Social Impact in India.

Aanya is the co-founder and Managing Director of Her Haq, a youth-led non-profit organisation working towards creating an ideal world where no woman has to fight to make her voice heard. Her Haq focuses on menstrual hygiene management, financial literacy, and legal literacy, having trained over 6000 adolescents and adults. Guided by these three pillars, Aanya actively works on mentoring young people, especially young women for leadership and advocates for social change. Her Haq’s campaigns involve #SpotTheStigma, launched in March 2021 under Girl Up Rise, which raised Rs 35,000 and distributed 10,000 pads with 10+ partners in 6 states. Furthermore, Her Haq improves financial and legal literacy by holding bootcamps, workshops, and curating comprehensible modules to educate and empower young women.

During the second wave of the pandemic, Aanya also co-founded Covid Fighters India, one of the biggest Covid-19 relief initiatives in the country with over 13,000 volunteers. Covid Fighters India worked as an emergency responses team to help people through the power of the digital world to get access to healthcare.

Aanya’s work as a changemaker has spanned a breadth of organisations, from Beyond Capital Ventures, a women-led VC firm that invests in India and Africa with a social impact lens, to the founding team at The Udati Foundation, which focuses on empowering women economically.

Aanya deeply believes in the power of community and advocacy – she was part of the Young People’s Action Team cohort of UNICEF and was on the Evaluation Committee for UNICEF India Youth Advocates Programme.