Dr Kamala Gopal Rao is a development-oriented social scientist with a special focus on women, children and community development. She has a doctorate in psychology with a specialisation in clinical, developmental and social psychology. She has extensive experience working in the areas of health and family planning while at the National Institute of Health, New Delhi, and the Carolina Population Centre, USA. She worked with UNICEF and was involved in planning, evaluation and programme support for basic services for children, including health, education and child rights, training of women on child health, and advocacy for the girl child. She organises training programmes for personnel from government and voluntary agencies on gender sensitisation and child development issues. She plans to develop action programmes to work with problems of malnutrition, child abuse, neglect, and emotional problems of children, including setting up child guidance clinics and intervention programmes to improve the situation of the girl child. She is actively concerned with child rights, and she is trustee of the Centre for Human Resource Development that works on gender and child development issues.