Firoza Mehrotra

Firoza Mehrotra (she/her) is on the Advisory Board of HomeNet South Asia, a network of organizations working with home-based women workers. She is also on the Working Committee of HomeNet International, a global network of home-based workers.

She has worked in the Indian Administrative Service, in India, for over 38 years, working both at the policy and field levels. Firoza has worked extensively in the areas of gender equality, women’s empowerment, child development, adolescents, population, police and jail administration, and rural development. She retired as Special Consultant in the Planning Commission, Government of India where she looked after the women and child development, handlooms and handicrafts, north-east and voluntary sectors.

Firoza also worked with UNIFEM (now UNWomen) South Asia as the Deputy Regional Program Director for over 5 years when she worked on policy and advocacy issues with governments of the region, civil society especially women’s groups, and research institutions in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In addition, she worked at UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) as the Gender Specialist, for over four years.

Firoza’s areas of specialization are women’s rights, home-based workers, combating violence against women, adolescent empowerment, gender-responsive budgeting, and early child care and development. Firoza Mehrotra has several publications to her credit and has participated in a large number of conferences and consultative meetings in the areas of her focus.