Pushkar Raj is Lecturer in the department of political science at Zakir Hussain college, University of Delhi. He has been teaching political philosophy and Indian politics in the college for the last four years. Dr. Raj has actively been associated with civil society groups that are engaged in participatory action centric research, protection and advocacy of human rights in the country. He was part of an observer team of the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi to observe the elections in Jammu and Kashmir in Sep-Oct 2002. He has been part of various campaigns. These have included: campaigns for the repeal of repressive laws like TADA, POTA and the Anti-Begging Law, campaigns supporting the right to Information, Food, Employment and Development. At present Dr. Raj is the National Secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). He has been associated with the Lokniti since August 2003 and has served as the state coordinator of Delhi in the post poll surveys for Delhi in the National Study in 2004.

Research Interests:
Dr. Raj's main areas of interest include political institutions, democracy, governance and human rights. His main focus is to highlighting the state of human rights of the deprived and marginalised in society through the method of survey research so as to contribute inputs that might be useful in policy formation and institutional building.

Selected Publications:

Articles in Professional / Refereed journals

	Benefiting from Two-Layered Incumbency, Economic and Political Weekly, Dec 18-24, 2004.
	Politics and Literature in Africa, Indian Journal of African Studies, Vol. X, Nos. 1 and 2 1999.

Monographs, Reports and Occasional Papers

	Criminalizing Poverty: Houseless and Anti-Begging Law in Delhi, PUCL Bulletin, New Delhi, Jan 2005.
	With Sanjay Kumar, Democracy's Marginal Citizens: Houseless in Delhi, Paper presented at a National Seminar organized by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi, 18-19 Nov. 2004.
	Mindset of the Middle Class: A Case Study of Delhi, Paper presented at the Institute of Social Sciences, (ISS), New Delhi, 12 March 2004.
	Research Advocacy and Human rights, Paper presented, at the India Habitat Centre work shop on Civil Society Partners and Human Rights organized by the One World South Asia, New Delhi, 3-4 march 2004.
	Globalization and Human Rights, PUCL Bulletin, July 2002.

Book Reviews

Gandhi Marg, Rafiq Zakaria, Communal Rage in Secular India, Popular Parkashan, Mumbai, 2002, June 2003. Vol. 26, No. 1,.

Dr. Raj has conducted several fact finding investigations on human rights violations on behalf of civil society groups that included firing on farmers in Haryana, killings of Dalits (low castes) in Uttar Pradesh and police high handedness in Delhi. He is also on the panel of experts of the fact finding investigators of Delhi Minorities Commission.