I am Ranjana Pandey Panigrahi, a researcher and social development professional. My professional journey as a researcher began with Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DRDO, Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India) as a “Research Associate” in 1998. With educational background in Psychology (Masters in Psychology – Organisational Behaviour) from Delhi University, and further courses in Personnel Management and Gender mainstreaming, my destiny transitioned my career into a social development professional.
My professional exposure to the issues of gender-based discrimination, my personal experience of being a woman myself and observation of women around has exposed me to the struggles in the journey of being a woman, more importantly, the struggles in the journey of being an empowered woman. I have been observing, resisting, and talking about the gender based discrimination in private and in public as my own little effort towards enabling change against such discriminatory practices through open discourse on the issues.
I strongly believe that to be able to actualise the meaning of life, there has to be consistency between what we preach and what we practice; our ideal self and our real self (as once taught by my Psychology HOD, Sister Margarette Mary, in Patna Women’s College). My learnings too are that if we really talk about Gender Equality or non-discrimination or any such social change out there, the change must begin with us, in our own homes, in our practice….