
Dr Madhumita Iyengar
Chair
Dr Madhumita Iyengar
Chair
Dr Madhumita Iyengar is an economist by profession, with a deep commitment to community services. She is passionate about social justice issues related to women and children since her student days in India. After making Canberra her family home, she has been actively involved with various community activities in the ACT region for more than a decade. She is the founder Chair of Initiatives For Women In Need (IWiN), an ACT based volunteer run community organisation. Through policy advocacy and research, IWiN works on social issues affecting wellbeing of women and children. Madhumita has developed a strong community network under IWiN umbrella to support the empowerment of Culturally And Linguistically Diverse (CALD) women, in addition to presenting IWiN policy works in different forums, conducting various IWiN workshops / panel discussions / fundraisers and other community events. Currently, Madhumita’s research is focussed on policy issues like gender inequality, domestic violence and labour market discrimination issues faced by migrant women coming from CALD background. Madhumita has a Doctoral (PhD) degree from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane and an advanced post graduate (MPhil) degree in Economics from Delhi School Of Economics in Delhi (India). During her almost 20 years long public service career in Australia and India as Economic Adviser, she wrote a range of research reports and papers on different policy issues and presented research papers in various national and international conferences and seminars. Madhumita’s love for music comes from her education in Shantiniketan (Visva Bharati University, India), a globally recognised place of innovative music, arts and culture created by the first non-European Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. She has performed on stage as a singer on numerous occasions including National Multicultural Festivals and different community events in Canberra.