Ombudsperson
Professor Vibha Singh Chauhan, former Principal of Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, has had a distinguished academic and administrative career spanning several decades. She began her teaching career at Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi, where she nurtured generations of students and contributed to curriculum development and institutional growth. An accomplished author, editor and translator, she has published extensively across English, Hindi and Bhojpuri, with a strong repertoire of creative and critical writings. Her research primarily explores the cultural and literary life of non-urban India, and she has lectured widely across India and abroad in this field. She has also written on the mental health of young persons, particularly during the COVID-19 period.
Prof. Chauhan has served in several academic and institutional capacities, including as Member of the Executive Council, University of Delhi and as UGC nominee on governing bodies of various colleges. She has also served as a member of UGC expert committees for assessing autonomous colleges, women’s hostel construction and academic performance evaluations. She is a Peer Team Member for NAAC. She has also been Treasurer of the Governing Body, Dayal Singh College, and a Member of the Governing Body of the Maithili Bhojpuri Akademi (2011–2013).
Prof. Chauhan’s long-standing interest in social and gendered discourses is reflected in her monograph “Gods People Make: A Survey of Local Deities in Eastern Uttar Pradesh”, based on a research grant from the Nehru Cambridge Trust. This work has been preserved by the Nehru Trust for Indian Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She was a founding member of the Institute of Lifelong Learning at the University of Delhi, where she played a pioneering role in introducing e-learning initiatives.
Beyond academia, Professor Chauhan has contributed significantly to social and health initiatives. She is the Founder Secretary of HELM: Health, Equality and Literacy Movement, working for the welfare of abandoned women in Vrindavan, and the Founding Director of the ETI Foundation, which focuses on visual and mental health among schoolchildren in Delhi. She has also been a part of a team of doctors and social workers addressing health challenges—including malaria, tuberculosis, anaemia, and visual and oral health—among indigenous communities in Chhattisgarh.
