Parul Sheth – Shaishav Trust - India 

Ms. Parul Sheth the Founder, Executive Director, and Managing Trustee of the Shaishav Trust, an NGO that works with disadvantaged children (www.shaishavchildrights.org). She is responsible for mission definition, development, and public relations, as well as for the supervision of ongoing work. She also liaises with other NGOs and governmental bodies, participating actively in their collaborative work for children’s rights and human rights in general in India. She has been particularly concerned with enhancing children’s ability to be involved as agents in decision-making about their lives and in the protection of their own rights. She has worked to reduce child labor, child marriage, child abuse, and exploitation through education and empowerment of children. Parul has worked as trainer and facilitator at national and international level on various issues related children’s rights. Ms. Sheth holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and law as well as a Masters in social work from the University of Bombay.

Parul is an Ashoka Fellow and currently she got Fulbright Humphrey Fellowship and she is placed at University of Minnesota, Law School, Human Rights Center. She plans to critically analyze various Indian laws and policies from a Child Rights Based Approach. Parul also plans to study various Child/Youth Rights Participation Models within the United States. She hopes to network within the global children’s rights movement to form a coherent model of participation, rights, and responsibility-based education that can be used as a sustainable framework regardless of geographic location.