Dr. Poornima M is an Assistant Professor and Sub-Coordinator at the Muchkund Dubey Centre for Right to Education at the Council for Social Development (CSD), New Delhi. She holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. from the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, with her doctoral work examining the application of New Public Management principles in educational reforms in Rajasthan.
Dr. Poornima’s research interests span school education, governance, public policy, gender and development, local governance and social development, with a particular emphasis on equity, inclusion, and the right to education. Her academic work explores how public policy frameworks and governance structures shape access to and quality of education, especially for marginalized and disadvantaged communities. She has a deep interest in the analysis of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, with a particular focus on strengthening government schools and examining the gaps between policy intent and practice.
At CSD, Dr. Poornima has led and contributed to a wide range of research and evaluation studies, focusing on school education, gender, digital literacy, and social protection. She has served as Principal Investigator in most of these projects, having undertaken over 18 studies. Currently, she is the Project Director of an ICSSR-sponsored study titled “Equitable Education for a Viksit Bharat: Exploring School Dropout.” She also led another ICSSR-supported study on “Reviving Government Schools,” reflecting her core interest in strengthening public education. Her other work on education includes a study on the “Reach and Role of Private Schools in India”, co-led with support from the Malaysian Trust for Cambridge University.
Her work includes key evaluations such as the impact of COVID-19 on children across four Indian states and interventions for out-of-school children in Assam, both supported by Tata Trusts. She has evaluated the nationwide implementation of digital literacy programmes—NDLM, DISHA, and PMGDISHA—across three phases, funded by CSC-SPV of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Beyond education, Dr. Poornima has been a part of the research team on projects such as “Status and Pathways for Portability of Cash and In-Kind Transfers in India” funded by KFW German Financial Cooperation and a developed a “Training Manual on SDGs for NGOs” supported by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. In the area of gender and justice, she has undertaken evaluations of legal literacy initiatives, menstrual hygiene programmes, and women’s capacity-building projects. She has also contributed to studies like “Gender, Capital and Culture: Witch Hunts and Ritual Attacks” and “What Works for Teachers.” She has organized and facilitated several national and international seminars and coordinated training workshops.
Dr. Poornima has published widely in edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals. She co-edited the volume India’s Social Sector and SDGs: Problems and Prospects with Prof. R. Govinda, published by Routledge. She has also developed course modules for the Faculty of Public Administration and the School of Gender and Development Studies at IGNOU, and regularly engages in academic conferences, policy consultations, and public lectures. She remains committed to advancing inclusive and equitable education and development policies in India.
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