Jaleel Ahmad

Jaleel Ahmad is a senior program officer at the Population Council. As a public health researcher for more than 13 years, he is involved in the evaluation of large-scale programs integrating maternal and child health and nutrition and sanitation with women’s self-help groups (SHGs) in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Ahmad conducts needs-based assessments and studies social behavior change and communication, women’s empowerment, and gender-based violence.

Ahmad is responsible for generating evidence and disseminating it to stakeholders, as well as for building professional relationships with government departments and nongovernmental organizations. He has successfully piloted quality assurance projects to improve maternal and child health services in public health systems, which were later scaled up in all of the districts of Maharashtra state in India. He was also instrumental in the development of a family planning counseling tool for community health workers.

Before joining the Council in 2007, Ahmad was complaint cell in-charge of the National Commission for Women within the Government of India. He assisted in the investigation of several cases of violence and also worked as a counselor, dealing with thousands of matrimonial disputes through the commission during his four years of employment. He was responsible for documenting case studies of gender-based violence and was instrumental in forming a crisis intervention center. He was ultimately appointed as nodal officer for Delhi to assist the Delhi police in the rehabilitation of rape survivors.

Ahmad has presented two scientific papers internationally and is author of more than 10 peer-reviewed papers, technical reports, policy briefs, and book chapters.

Ahmad is a trained social worker with a master’s degree in social work (MSW) and a master’s degree in public administration. He has also completed an Advanced Diploma in Public Health from Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi, India.