Dr. Gauri Divan, a developmental pediatrician, has dedicated her career at Sangath to understanding and supporting families of children with developmental disorders, particularly autism. Through rigorous research, she has led efforts to document the lived experiences of families as they navigate the challenges of obtaining timely diagnoses and accessing evidence-informed interventions for their children.

Her work spans more than 15 years across landmark programmes such as ARTI, PASS, INFORM, PASS Plus, and COMPASS — each addressing the two core barriers faced by families: delays in diagnosis and limited access to appropriate care. NAMASTE represents the culmination of this journey. As Co-Lead Investigator, Dr. Divan has brought together these learnings to establish a district-level detection-to-care pathway for neurodiverse children, strengthening early identification and holistic support for families.

Besides this interest in developing scalable services for developmental disorders, she also leads work supporting interventions that buffer for early adversities. These interventions involve community based workers facilitating groups to view videos within the communities they work in. These videos standardise messages around early nutrition, responsive caregiving and opportunities for play.  Two examples of these programs are in Telangana (Alana Palana) and in Madhya Pradesh (Lalan Palan).  

Besides these key areas of work, she has also supported work in inclusive education in school settings (Beyond Boundaries & STAND) and understanding the developmental trajectory of children’s development ( REACH, COINCIDE, STEER).