The Team
Voices of Rural India has been founded by a core team of passionate travellers, responsible tourism pioneers and digital empowerment advocates.
Shivya Nath
Shivya Nath is the founder of Climate Conscious Travel, an impact consultancy that works with the tourism industry to centre climate action in tourism, with a focus on local communities. She is the author of a bestselling travel memoir, and runs one of India’s most widely read responsible travel blogs, The Shooting Star. Her words have appeared in BBC Travel, National Geographic Traveller, The Washington Post, and other leading publications. She is currently pursuing a graduate certificate in Sustainable Cities and Communities at Harvard’s DCE, and holds a professional certificate in Sustainable Tourism from the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. Connect with her on Instagram / Twitter: @shivya
Shivya is one of the co-founders of Voices of Rural India.
Malika Virdi
Malika Virdi is the founder-director of Himalayan Ark, a community-based tourism organization in the Munsiari region of Uttarakhand, that has been awarded the Best Tourism Village of India by the Government of India in 2023. She has twice been elected the sarpanch of the Sarmoli-Jainti Van Panchayat. She is also the founder-member of Maati Sangathan, an autonomous women’s collective that works in areas of domestic violence, agriculture and conservation.
Malika is one of the co-founders of Voices of Rural India, and heads the Himalayan States Storytellers Fellowship Program under Himal Prakriti at VoRI.
Osama Manzar
Osama Manzar is a global leader on the mission of eradicating information poverty from India and global south using digital tools through Digital Empowerment Foundation, an organisation he founded in 2002. He is a social entrepreneur, author, columnist, angel investor and mentor, and sits on several government and policy committees in India and outside, working in the areas of Internet, access and digital inclusion. He is a British Chevening Scholar and an International Visitors Leadership Program Fellow of the US State Department. He writes a weekly column in Mint and tweets at @osamamanzar.
Osama is one of the co-founders of Voices of Rural India.
Isha Shah
Isha Shah has always been captivated by the magic of words and the journeys they take us on.
Through stories, she has explored countless worlds—both those she has read and those she has
attempted to create. Isha is keenly interested in environmental research, investigative and
multimedia journalism and she has interned with several organizations. She is the co-founder of a
global youth-led organisation called Youth Climate Connect (YCC).
Her love for travel, learning and unlearning has brought her to the mountains of Munsiari. She
currently works with Himal Prakriti and coordinates the Fellowship Program for Voices of Rural India
to bring to the world stories from villages of the India Himalayan Region.
Sumukh
Sumukh is a cinematographer and a wanderer, constantly in search of trails and tales. He also finds his muse in music, books and exploring alternative photographic techniques. From town-hopping with indie bands as a concert photographer to working as an independent filmmaker and a photographer, he enjoys covering stories of impact through powerful visual narratives.
At Voices of Rural India, Sumukh works with storytellers, assisting in learning visual storytelling skills and in navigating the digital world through Himal Prakriti.
Namrata Shah
After working for over 20 years in the IT industry, Namrata decided to leave the corporate world last year and now volunteers with a non-profit organization. She is a travel lover, amateur singer, books lover, yoga learner and movie buff. She blogs at The Bimble Bee.
Namrata volunteers with translations and had earlier overseen editing and wordpress at Voices of Rural India.
