V R Raman is a seasoned public policy, systems, governance and accountability expert with multi-disciplinary, multi-domain experience and expertise. He holds a work profile spanning over 3 decades, spread across sectors such as health, WASH, nutrition, disaster resilience, climate change and education, in both rural and urban settings of India and globally.
Raman's professional journey has seen him contributing at grassroots, sub-national, national, and international levels in a variety of roles. He has played pivotal roles in five flagship national missions of India and has actively fostered and spearheaded state-civil society partnership programs and organisations in several underprivileged regions. Notably, he is a co-founder of the Mitanin Community Health Worker Program and the Swasth Panchayat Scheme in Chhattisgarh, Sahiyya Community Health Worker program and the Village Health Committee initiatives in Jharkhand, and the Multisectoral Approach to Health Program in Uttar Pradesh.
Till recently, Raman was a Senior Policy Research Expert at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). Earlier, he worked as the head of the policy research and advocacy vertical of the WaterAid India and as Principal Fellow with the Public Health Foundation of India. Prior to these, he mentored community processes under the State Health Mission in Jharkhand and co-founded and later, headed the State Health Resource Centre in the state of Chhattisgarh. He started his national career as a National Coordinator of the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, that supported the nationwide total literacy campaign. He is part of several boards and advisory initiatives for a series of government and non-government organisations and initiatives, and serves the Sanitation Learning Hub at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex as its In-country Focal Person for India and the Public Health Resource Network, India, as its National Convenor. He is an invited faculty or resource person for many of the important institutions and initiatives as well. He is also associated with several civil society and people’s initiatives.
His dedication to accountability and rights-based approaches is evident through his involvement in community-based monitoring of various social development initiatives. He has regularly collaborated with the National Human Rights Commission for a long time and was a member of its core advisory till recently. His contributions to national and state level budget analysis processes started in 1999 which spanned across multiple sectors and specific topics related to equity and inclusion.
Raman holds a master’s degree in public health from the University of Western Cape, South Africa, and he completed his graduate and undergraduate studies from the University of Calicut, Kerala. He has authored or contributed to numerous publications covering a wide range of topics.