Three Indians named 2017 Yale World Fellows

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Three Indian global leaders are among this year’s Yale World Fellows, bringing the total number of World Fellows since the program’s start in 2002 to 309 Fellows, representing 87 countries.

Journalist Raheel Khursheed, Indian Police Service officer Rema Rajeshwari and human rights activist Baljeet Sandhu are among those selected for the university’s signature global leadership development initiative. “The 2017 World Fellows are extraordinary individuals who share a commitment to open society and a belief that what unites us is far greater than what divides us,” said Emma Sky, director of the Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program. “They join our network of over 300 World Fellows, working to make our world a better place for all,” she said.

Each year, the University invites a group of exemplary mid-career professionals from a wide range of fields and countries for an intensive four-month period of academic enrichment and leadership training.

Khursheed currently heads Currently, News Partnerships for Twitter in India and South East Asia. At Twitter, Khursheed has lead the conception, development and roll-out of civic tech products. Khursheed’s innovative product and partnerships work– from Twitter SMS alerts to live data on national television– has dramatically altered how elections and politics are narrated in India. He previously served as director of communications for India at Change.org, leading an effective strategy that successfully seeded petitioning as an organizing tool. He organized the ‘Stop Rape’ campaign that helped change the rape laws in India.

An Indian Police Service officer with a distinguished career of integrity and passion, Rajeshwari has held various positions for nearly a decade. She has been instrumental in running successful operations against extremists, a women and child-trafficking nexus, and other criminal activities. She has in-depth knowledge of police management, human rights, international relations and the United Nations policies and programs.

She has won accolades as the first female Indian Police Service officer from Munnar, Kerala and as the topper of the Indian Police Service class of 2009.

Her most recent initiative, “Balyaniki Raksha,” is a community outreach program on child safety that works to educate the children of rural India to break the silence around child sexual abuse.

Sandhu is the founding director of the Migrant & Refugee Children’s Legal Unit (MiCLU). She is recognized as a leading children’s rights lawyer in the field of immigration and asylum law in the UK, regularly providing expert evidence to UK courts, select committees and children and anti-slavery commissioners.

In 2011, she was awarded Young Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year. She is a UK Clore Social Leadership fellow and a fellow of the Vital Voices Female Global Leaders Partnership.