Author: Harish Iyer
Profile: Harish Iyer is an Indian columnist, Indian equal rights activist and blogger. He was born in 1979 at Barrackpore, West Bengal, India. He completed his education at SIES High School, Guru Nanak Khalsa College, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and SVKM’s NMIMS. He is also well known as ‘hiyer’, ‘Aham’ and Harrish Iyer’.
He takes active participation in advocating for various causes including promoting the rights of children, survivors of child sexual abuse, gay, lesbian, transgender (LGBT) and bisexual community, animals and women.
He was appointed to the Core Group by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in August 2018 to deal with LGBT related issues. Concerns and challenges of the LGBT community are looked into by the Core group in an effort to harmonize the existing laws with reference to requirements of the community. He is one of the most fiery motivational speakers in India given his emoting ability and oratory skills. In 2013, Harish spoke at the THiNK conference of Tehelka.
Writing style: Harish has also been one of the most vocal advocator of decriminalization of homosexuality in India. Besides this he has been involved in many awareness campaigns related to condemning the ruling and impact of the decision via advocacy through media. He wrote a number of letters and articles on these matters and appeared on top shows on national television to emphasize the difficulties faced by the LGBT community in India in wake of the decision.
Published Texts:
Featured on the Satyamev Jayate talk show, of Indian movie star Aamir Khan on a episode on child sexual abuse issue
Seen in the panel of the popular talk show, We The People on NDTV anchored by Barkha Dutt
Featured in Zindagi Live the Hindi talk show of Richa Anirudh
Harish and his family starred with Ellen Page in Gaycation, her web series
Harish campaigns routinely on social media, for causes dear to him
During the 26/11 Terror Attacks he turned his personal blog as a helpline and organized an animal aided therapy workshop later along with Animal Angels in Mumbai to help citizens recuperate
He appeared in the PETA campaign encouraging consumers to go vegetarian
A book named, The Bad Touch, by Payal Shah Karwa features a biographic account of Harish Iyer has been published
He has been signed up by Amazon’s Westland for his autobiography title ‘SON RISE’
He has often spoken at the TEDx an independently organized TED conference on the topic ‘What if we had the culture of speaking about sex’
Awards and Acknowledgements:
2016 – Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, the Indian government firm recognized Harish Iyer with the Energizing Bharat Award for his work in the field of empowerment of women.
Named by The Guardian, in the list of the 100 most influential LGBT people in the world – he is listed at number 71 and has been the only Indian national ever on the list
Named by Pink Pages, as one of the seven most influential lesbian and gay people
Awarded the Zindagi Live Awards amongst 10 individuals for his work in creating awareness on child sexual abuse