Dr Avinash Kumar is a Distinguished Fellow at Centre for Equity Studies, Delhi. He has been working in the development space in India for more than 20 years. A PhD in Modern Indian History from JNU, he started his career at the Mahatma Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya before entering the development space. He was a Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow at School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. From 2005 to 2014, he was part of OxFam India, ending his tenure there as Director, Policy, Research and Campaigns.

In his time at OxFam, he worked on various themes, from communalism to access to essential services. After his role at OxFam India, he became Director, Programme and Policy at WaterAid India, where he worked on issues of Water Security, sanitation and hygiene. In 2019, he became Executive Director of Amnesty International India, during an extremely challenging time for the organization. He remains engaged with a range of issues around human rights, gender, education, health, government accountability, and inclusion and also writes on these issues frequently.