Sanjugta has long-standing leadership experience working in the South Australian public sector, serving across a range of human services agencies including disability, public housing, education and child protection. She has expertise in policy and service development well as research and evaluation.
Now as Director, Office for Women in the Department for Human Services, she oversees a range of portfolio areas promoting the safety of women and girls and gender equality more broadly. She has a strong interest in the area of domestic and family violence as well as injecting a more diverse range of women’s voices both into policy development and advocacy.
Prior to working in State Government, Sanjugta completed her PhD in political science and worked as a researcher and consultant across the three South Australian universities. Her work involved gender responsive budgeting within an international development context and Sanjugta has worked in a number of Asia Pacific nations including Samoa, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, India, Indonesia and Cambodia. Sanjugta currently sits on the Management Committee of the Don Dunstan Foundation and serves in an ex officio capacity on both the Premier’s Council for Women and the South Australian Gender Pay gap Taskforce.