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Vaishali Sharma Mahendra is a senior program officer with the Population Council’s South and East Asia regional office in New Delhi, India. Since joining the Council in 1998, she has implemented studies to understand and address contextual factors related to HIV and AIDS prevention and care efforts. She has been responsible for initiating, monitoring, and evaluating intervention research projects on sexual behaviors of truckers; the sexual and reproductive health of sex workers; promoting gender equity among young people; exploring intergenerational communication between young people and adults; and linking HIV-positive women and their families to treatment, care, and support.
Prior to joining the Council, Mahendra coordinated research to design and evaluate programs on maternal and child health as well as the sexual health of women and adolescents. She has also worked as a rape crisis counselor in Texas in the United States and a special educator for children in New Delhi, India.
Mahendra has a master's degree in child development from the Delhi University in India. Her research interests include understanding and addressing social and gender equity issues as they relate to preventing and mitigating the impact of the AIDS epidemic on women and children, and protecting and promoting the rights of those infected and affected. She has published extensively on issues related to HIV and AIDS and has given presentations at conferences and workshops around the world.
A partial list of publications includes:
Mahendra, Vaishali Sharma, Laelia Gilborn, Bitra George, Luke Samson, Rupa Mudoi, Sarita Jadav, Indrani Gupta, Shalini Bharat, and Celine Daly. 2006. Reducing AIDS-related stigma and discrimination in Indian hospitals, Horizons Final Report. New Delhi: Population Council. (PDF)
Mahendra, Vaishali Sharma and Laelia Gilborn. 2004. "PLWHA-friendly hospitals in India: Reducing AIDS-related stigma and discrimination," Sexual Health Exchange 2: 13 14.
Verma, Ravi K, and Vaishali Sharma Mahendra. 2004. Construction of masculinity in India: A gender and sexual health perspective,Journal of Family Welfare 50(special issue): 71 78.
A partial list of presentations includes:
Mahendra, Vaishali Sharma, Laelia Gilborn, Shalini Bharat, Rupa Mudoi, Sarita Jadav, Indrani Gupta, Bitra George, and Luke Samson. 2006. Understanding and reducing AIDS-related stigma among health care workers in India: Positive results from a pilot study presented at National Conference on Research in HIV & AIDS: Research Gaps, Priorities, Strategies, New Delhi, India. April.
Mahendra, Vaishali Sharma, Avina Sarna, Naomi Rutenberg, Ashok Rau, L Birendrajit Singh, Rupa Mudoi, Archana Oinam, Venkat Pakkela, and Sucheta Panda. 2006. Assessing PMTCT integration with HIV prevention, treatment, care and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services for HIV-positive women: Experiences from India presented at PEPFAR Annual Meeting, Durban, South Africa, June. | 