2020 DIAN & DIAN India Meeting 3 – Moving on up: Expanding Your D&I Approach to Include Social Mobility

Christina Dhanaraj is a corporate professional with 12+ years of experience working and living in India, Singapore, China, the United States, and the Netherlands. She is also a consultant for women and minority-led initiatives focusing on social justice, self-determination, and collaborative models of scholarship. She is currently an advisor for Smashboard. She was formerly the co-founder of the Dalit History Month project and a volunteer for #dalitwomenfight. Her writing interests lie in the politics of identity, diversity & inclusion, mental health, community care, and intersectional discourses between caste, gender, religion, race, and sexuality. She has a noticeable presence on Twitter with over 9000 followers, where she frequently engages on issues relevant to inclusion, equity, and diversity from a caste lens. She is currently based in the Netherlands.

Puja Kapai is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law and Convenor of the Women’s Studies Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). She is an expert in international human rights law, minority rights, and intersectional legal studies, focusing in particular on the rights of communities marginalised on grounds of gender, race, religion, sexuality, and citizenship specifically in the areas of education, poverty, democratic participation, language rights, hate speech and gender- and race-based violence. She has published widely on these themes. Her recent research includes a comparative study on children’s rights education, a study on the experiences and help seeking behaviours of ethnic minority and immigrant victims of domestic violence, a comprehensive report on the Status of Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong 1997-2014 and Doing Equality Consciously, the first study on unconscious bias in Asia.

Professor Kapai has presented her work to the government of the HKSAR Administration, Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and Poverty Commission. Several recommendations made in her reports have been implemented at the policy level. She has also presented her research and submitted joint shadow reports before various treaty bodies of the United Nations.

Recognising her contribution to teaching, research, and the community-based impact of her work, Professor Kapai was honoured with the International Women of Courage Hong Kong Award 2015, HKU Faculty of Law’s Outstanding Teaching Award 2016 and its Knowledge Exchange Award 2017 and the American Chamber of Commerce’s Women of Influence Professional Woman of the Year Award 2019.

Ryan is an Ashoka Fellow and founder of Virtualahan, a social enterprise that ensures that the most excluded populations of society are given equal opportunities in the digital economy using the equalizing power of technology. He also founded Spectrum, an impact sourcing company enabling Persons with Disabilities to work remotely and start their own ventures.

The companies were founded after he experienced employment discrimination as a medical professional because of his chronic disease. Virtualahan and Spectrum is now working with Persons with Disabilities, recovering drug addicts, solo parents, out of school youth, indigenous people, former sex workers, and other disadvantaged communities.

Ryan is also a Global Shaper and a Philippine Ambassador of Goodwill. He is also a fellow at the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative of the U.S. State Department and the Global Good Fund. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum, Global Disability Summit, Youth20 of the G20 Summit, debated at the United Nations Youth Assembly, and has been featured on Bloomberg TV, CNN, Pioneer’s Post, and other international media.
Virtualahan is also the first Filipino Company to win as the Global Champion in the Young Innovators category at the World Summit Awards and also won Google Business Group Stories Award. Ryan is also in the third season of The Final Pitch, the first business-reality TV in the country aired in CNN Philippines where Virtualahan was hailed as the best social enterprise with two investment offers.

Ryan is also the first Filipino to receive the Inspired Leadership Award previously given to Sir Richard Branson and Melinda Gates. He is an emerging leader in the fields of innovative education, diversity and inclusion, impact sourcing, and the future of work. Coming from a humble background in Sultan Kudarat province, he is committed to creating a systemic change through Virtualahan to get people out of poverty using empathy and technology.