Ms Priyanka Kadam is the President & Founder of Snakebite Healing and Education Society (She- India.org). She spends her time working with individuals and NGOs working in the area of snakebite management and mitigation. Her expertise is Human Right Issues, Community Engagement & Advocacy. She has brought together talents from varied backgrounds to work on the grossly neglected health issues related to snakebites in India.
Snakebites are estimated to kill more than 58,000 people annually in India and the morbidity that accompanies a venomous snakebite is much more than human fatalities. Ms Kadam has been actively working with various grass root level groups in Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Karnataka to mitigate snakebite incidences and spread awareness in rural India. She has been driving projects at the community level with a special focus on capacity building of PHCs (Primary Health Centre) & Private hospitals and Community Awareness through the District Collector’s office and the local Forest Department and grassroots NGOs in various states.
Ms Kadam has more than 28 years of corporate experience. She holds a BA in Economics, M.A. in Sociology and a Post Grad Diploma in Human Rights. She is also CAMS (Certified Anti-Money laundering Specialist) certified and remains an active member of India’s evolving AML & Regulatory Compliance Fraternity.
In 2018, Ms Kadam helped produce an advocacy film on the snakebite burden in India, THE DEAD DON’T TALK. In November 2019, this film won an award at the International Science Film Festival of India.
Ms Kadam’s initiative has built a credible repository of educational materials on snakebite prevention and control that can be used across the Indian states. The 5 min short awareness video is dubbed in 12 languages and posters / banners on Do’s and Don’ts are freely available for all volunteers wanting to work on the cause.
Ms Kadam was a member of WHO’s Global Snakebite Envenoming Group and helped author WHO’s Snakebite Prevention and Control Strategy published in May 2019. She is currently enlisted in WHO’s roster of experts and continues to collaborate with various stakeholders on implementation of the strategy to bring down the death and disability due to snakebites by 50% by 2030.
Ms Kadam considers snakebite incidents as a human right issue and focuses to create awareness around this challenge through advocacy and community engagement. Ms Kadam has presented in various snakebite & toxinology symposiums in India, Nepal, Netherlands and USA to create awareness on this much neglected medical emergency that has a socio-economic impact on people’s lives.
In February, 2021, Ms Kadam along with colleagues has authored an open access paper on “Approaches for implementing society-led community interventions to mitigate snakebite envenoming burden: The SHE-India Experience”.
https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0009078
In March 2021, Ms Kadam was conferred a Degree of Doctorate in Human Rights (Honoris causa) by the World Human Rights Protection Commission.
In July, 2021, Ms Kadam collaborated with HAI (Health Action International) to author an open access paper on “Snakebite incidents, prevention and care during COVID-19: Global key-informant experiences”. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590171021000114
Ms Kadam is an animal lover with a keen interest in bird watching. When not on the field, she can be found in and around Mumbai, Maharashtra.
