Avni Bahri

Avni Bahri is a skilled professional with expertise in law, gender, and prison reform. She has over 7 years of work experience in the area of social and criminal justice, with a strong passion to promote human rights, equality, and women’s rights. Throughout her education and career, she has made significant contributions to policy-making, research, training, and advocacy through her association with various NGOs and government organizations.

She pursued her B.A. in History (Hons) from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, LL.B from Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, and LLM in Access to Justice from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. In addition, she holds postgraduate diplomas in Criminology and Correctional Management (Faculty of Social Work, Maharaja Saiyajirao University, Vadodara and Human Rights (Indian Institute of Human Rights, New Delhi).

During her previous stint, she was engaged with the Supreme Court Committee on Prison Reforms at the Ministry of Home Affairs, where she was responsible for the creation and development of survey and research tools, training of prison officials, and helped formulate policy for prisons in India, aimed at law reform and suggesting measures for effective implementation. In the past, she has also worked with the National Commission for Women, as a Legal Expert where her work encompassed law reviews, capacity building, and gender sensitization of police officers and other stakeholders. In addition being part of several national-level inquiry committees wherever violation of women’s rights has been recorded, as well as of inspection teams visiting State institutions housing women. She was also involved with Praja Foundation, a Mumbai-based organization where she conducted research and analysis on issues relating to governance and advocacy by forming linkages between community groups, NGOs, media, and government officials, 
as well as trained students, elected representatives and other stakeholders on right to information and governance issues.

She is passionate about connecting the dots between the criminal justice system and gender rights, she remains a strong advocate of advancing women’s rights. She has lent her voice to several public events including a TEDx talk on women in institutional and custodial settings in India.

Her core areas of interest include constitutional law, the criminal justice system, juvenile justice, gender, and human rights, and remains committed to exploring the complex interplay between the socioeconomic fabric of communities, intersecting and impacting the administration of justice.

In her spare time, Avni enjoys doing art and craft, learning new languages, and cooking.