A person came from middle class family of Odisha struggled his way to a global think tank. Over 20 years, Dr Mohanlal Panda has been working in the field of human rights with various responsibilities.

With a doctorate degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, in the field of environmental diplomacy, he joined Rural Development Foundation, an NGO sponsored by PHD Chamber of Commerce in 1997.

As a trainer, he worked in the rural areas of Haryana and Rajasthan to provide training to the elected women members of the panchayats on their rights and responsibilities.

Monitored the organisation’s collaborative initiative with Tarun Bharat Sangh in building water conservation structures in Alwar district, Rajasthan.

Joined as Programme Executive, in the South Asia Regional office of Friedrich Naumann Stiftung (FNF), a German Political Foundation which works with civil society groups in promoting democracy, human rights, rule of law, etc. He led the foundation’s work on human rights and civil society’s dialogue process in Kashmir.

He was responsible for implementation of project, “prevention of Police torture in India”, funded by European Union and implemented across nine states in collaboration with a network of NGOs.

He was instrumental in upscaling FNF’s work on human rights by organizing trainings for important stakeholders like police, judges, doctors, lawyers, psychologists and psychiatrists; Organization of ‘Retired Judges’ Conference’ to establish solidarity platform to address human rights challenges by NGOs; publication of first manual on human rights education.

Joined People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights in 2009 as an Advisor.

Contributed to strengthen the organisation’s ongoing human rights monitoring and intervention work.

Instrumental to established Detention watch to monitor illegal detention,.

Led media and legislative advocacy work for minority rights and child rights.

Provided design and content input for the publication titled ‘Margins to Center Stage’authored by Ms (Dr) Archana kaushik and Ms Shruti Nagvanshi.

Independently, he undertakes research and post project evaluation.

He is the Director of a consultancy firm.