Anjali Gopalan is the Founder and Executive Director of the Naz Foundation (India) Trust, a Delhi-based NGO dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS.  

In the early 1980s, Anjali began working on issues related to HIV/AIDS and marginalised communities in the US. Upon returning to India, she was frustrated at the lack of government and civil society response to the burgeoning epidemic. In response, she founded Naz India in 1994 with the mission to support stigmatised and vulnerable communities affected by the virus.  

In 2000 as the HIV/AIDS crisis began to leave children infected and abandoned, Anjali opened the Naz Care Home to provide a safe and supportive environment for children living with HIV.  Today the Naz Care Home has given a lifetime commitment to provide a home for over 60 children.  

Anjali spearheaded the eighteen-year legal battle against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, decriminalising homosexuality. She also established an animal sanctuary ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ (ACGS) at Silakhari, Harayana. 

Anjali has been awarded the Commonwealth Award for her work with marginalised communities, the Sadguru Gnanananda Award 2003 for her work in supporting those living with HIV/AIDS and, in 2005, she was nominated and short-listed for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was also named one of Forbes India’s Top Influential People of 2009 and the 2012 Time Magazine: The 100 Most Influential People in the World because of her pioneering work advancing gender rights, sexual health related to HIV/AIDS, and the care home for HIV positive orphans. In 2023 Anjali received a National Transgender Awards Lifetime Achievement Award for her efforts to the uplift the Trans community and was recognised by the Children’s Champion Awards.