She has a Ph.D degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and is presently a fellow at the Local Government Initiative, Hungary. She has been engaged as a consultant with several national and international organizations, e.g., National Institute of Urban Affairs, Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, UNDP, UNESCAP, KfW Germany, GTZ, India, Urban Institute, Washington etc. on issues of urban development, governance and exclusion. She is also a visiting faculty to YASHADA, Pune and School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. She has a large number of publications in books and journals of international and national repute with the Sage, Oxford etc.