Sikkim Project Team - Sikkim Project

Prava Rai

Prava Rai — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 06:41:32 +0000

Born in Kewzing, then West Sikkim, Prava spent her early years in Rabong. She was awarded a scholarship to study at Mt. Hermon School in Darjeeling in 1961. She completed her studies at Delhi University and Jawahar Lal Nehru University.

Prava edited The Book Review for four years, taught for two years at the Institute of Mass Communication in Delhi, and worked in PRADAN (an organization devoted to rural development) from 1986-1989.

In Goa, she edited the Goa Heritage Action Group’s journal, PARMAL. In 2015, she edited a special issue on Sikkim’s culture and art for Mumbai's MARG Publications, out of which the current Sikkim Project: The Land and its People grew.

She is the founding director of DG Reading Room Resource and Education Foundation, at Dumigaon, South Sikkim.

Dr. Mona Chettri

Prava Rai — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 06:42:04 +0000

Mona Chettri is a researcher from Gangtok, Sikkim. She received her PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 2014. She has worked extensively on urbanisation, ethnicity, environmental politics and development in the eastern Himalayan borderlands of Sikkim, Darjeeling and east Nepal. She is the author of Constructing Democracy: Ethnicity and Democracy in the eastern Himalaya (Amsterdam University Press, 2017) and co-editor of Development Zones in Asian Borderlands (Amsterdam University Press, 2021). She is also the series editor of the Eastern Himalaya Series, an academic publication platform for local research and researchers. Recently, she has initiated the Reading Himalaya an independent Research and Policy Consultancy. Her current research focuses on the intersections between gender, labour, urbanisation and infrastructure in the Sikkim-Darjeeling Himalaya, India, and Himalayan immigrant labour in Australia.

Dr. Nirvan Pradhan

Prava Rai — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 07:46:06 +0000

Dr. Nirvan Pradhan is an educator from Darjeeling, West Bengal. He received his PhD from the Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
He completed his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Delhi, and both his Master’s and M.Phil from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was also a recipient of the DAAD Scholarship, through which he studied at the University of Würzburg, Germany.
His research explores a range of themes, including decaying capitalist spaces, transnational labour markets, political ecologies, elections, infrastructural politics, and the health and safety of migrant workers.
His writings have appeared in Himalaya: The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies, Sikkim Express, Studies in Indian Politics and Confluence Collective. He has also published chapters in various books. He has presented papers in various national and international conferences in Europe and North America.
He is currently serving as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Narasinha Dutt College, University of Calcutta.

Kursongkit Lepcha

Prava Rai — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 04:53:34 +0000

Kursongkit Lepcha is an educator from Gangyap, West Sikkim, committed to transforming literacy education in Sikkim, India. She holds degrees in English Literature (Calcutta University), Early Childhood Care and Education (Ambedkar University, Delhi), and an M.Phil in Children’s Literature (University of Cambridge), supported by the Nar Bahadur Bhandari Fellowship. Additionally , while at Ambedkar University, she received the Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM to study ‘resilience in education’ at the Ludwigsburg University of Education (2019).

Her journey began with EQUIP in 2017 and continued through her work with the DGRRRE Foundation (2021–2023), where she coordinated multiple aspects of its operations and the outreach programme Reading for Joy in government schools across South Sikkim. During this time, she also supported nature and science based learning as the Programme Associate to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

She now returns to the DG RRRE Foundation in a dual role as Research and Editorial Support for the Sikkim Project and as Programme Assistant to continue her mission to create joyful learning spaces for children and to carry out impactful research.

Tika Bhai

Prava Rai — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 06:43:02 +0000

Tika Bhai is a translator, poet, and actor. He pursued his primary school education in Kumrek Bustee and Government Secondary School, Pandem in East Sikkim. He completed his BA in History from Government College, Darjeeling, and his Master's from North Bengal University.

In 2014, he received the Sahitya Akademi Award for Youth, for his collection of poems 'पैतालातल्तिर' (Under the Soles). He has also acted in various regional films. Currently, he is engaged in the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras's translation project as a Project Associate.