Sowmya Kidambi is currently the Director and CEO of the Social Work and Research Centre also known as the Barefoot College based in Tilonia, Rajasthan after stepping down from her position in May 2023 as Director, SSAAT Telangana.

She worked as the Director of the Society for Social Audits, Accountability and Transparency (SSAAT), Department of Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh, and post bifurcation of the state of Telangana, from 2010 to 2023. She has worked for 18 years within the Government of Andhra Pradesh and subsequently the Government of Telangana, playing a crucial role in setting up the first social audit society in the country and institutionalising the social audit process within the Government.

Sowmya holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work (Urban and Rural Community Development) (1998) from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay, India. She also holds a Diploma from Columbia University, New York, in Human Rights (2003).

She worked with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) based in Rajasthan, India from 1998-2005.

In April 2006 she joined the Strategies and Performance Innovations Unit, Department of Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh (India), as a Social Development Specialist to institutionalize the Social Audit process as part of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and in 2010 was appointed Director of the independent institution Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency (SSAAT), set-up but the Government of AP in 2009.

As Director SSAAT she has been instrumental in scaling up the social audit process to other welfare schemes. She was instrumental in setting up and managing one of the first independent social audit societies set up in the country, which subsequently became the basis for the setting up of similar institutions in all the States.

Sowmya has also worked with the International Budget Partnership, Washington DC as Trainer/Technical Assistance Provider from 2008. She is responsible for conducting training courses on expenditure tracking with a special emphasis on social audits, in countries like Kenya to Social Audit the Constituency Development Fund and South Africa to audit the Janitorial and Sanitation services. She continues to be an independent consultant with the IBP to build an international social audit network.

She was also the member of the 1st Joint Task Force constituted by the C&AG to formulate the Auditing Standards and is currently a member of the second task force to look at the revisions required in the Auditing Standards in a wider perspective.