Research
My Work:
I am a Ph.D. candidate and Research Associate at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham's Center for Women's Empowerment & Gender Equality. I am responsible for program and framework development, grant writing, research publications, and the ongoing development of the Advancing Women's Empowerment through Systems Oriented Model Expansion (AWESOME) Framework.
Research:
I focus on how social and personal values influence cultural norms and gender relations. In particular, I am interested in how to leverage working with values to increase gender equality by educating and engaging people in shifting their personal values towards mutual respect and appreciation.
Academic Interests:
gender equality
women's empowerment
personal and social values
gender norms
gender roles
gender representation in media
The Center for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality approaches gender equality and women's empowerment from a holistic and systemic perspective, emphasizing research that focuses on environmental and social sustainability with practical implementation strategies to improve the lives of the most marginalized populations. To achieve this, we draw from more than a decade of fieldwork across rural and urban India, during which we have worked to empower women via education, economically, environmentally, socially, and culturally through innovative approaches, such as designing masonry and plumbing programs to teach women how to build their toilets, teaching women about water resource management, and other types of business endeavors.
We developed the AWESOME Framework in order to improve evaluation, intervention design, and implementation approaches to solve some of the most complex social problems we have encountered throughout our time in the field. This framework, based on vulnerability mapping and systems thinking, evaluates all of the different factors that affect women's lives and helps to navigate the complexities of designing empowerment programs.
In addition to our fieldwork, we have worked closely with the United Nations over the years. Some of our most recent work includes the two research reports commissioned by UNESCO New Delhi that are showcased below. As one of the lead researchers on both of these projects, I have gained a new appreciation for the rigor and depth that is required for quality research.
Research Reports
Over the last few decades, India has made considerable progress in supporting science education for girls at the school level, facilitating the access of Indian women to higher level science studies, and supporting them in their scientific careers. Yet, like in many other countries, Indian women still face many visible and invisible barriers and challenges in their personal lives and professional pathways.
In this publication, we have compiled a summary of what has already been achieved, outlined the known remaining obstacles, and made suggestions on how to further improve the situation. Our team has also produced new ideas and translated them into actionable recommendations for better retaining and promoting Indian women in science education and careers.
2020-2021
UNESCO New Delhi & Amrita University
The goal of this research is to explain, through multiple means and across different spheres, the need to engage and empower men and boys to critically evaluate national, regional and local norms of masculinities and challenge negative gender stereotypes and behaviors. The report also outlines how such a positive transformation will help stakeholders from the civil society, government, academia, and others, in addressing myths and misconceptions surrounding the different notions of masculinity, paving the way for societies to achieve peace and sustainable development, with gender equality as a core principle. This analysis and the resulting recommendations focused on India are expected to provide a valuable an important reference on this issue for the region and globally
Civil 20 India 2023
The Government of India assumed the G20 Presidency of the G20 in 2023. Mata Amritanandamay Devi, the Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and the head of MA Mission Trust, accepted the role of Chair of Civil 20 (C20). C20 is a non-government participant that provides recommendations to the G20 Leaders and contribute towards the policy-making process. The Indian C20 process was exhaustive and deeply collaborative, with an emphasis on getting inputs from the grassroots level.
I was affiliated with the Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Working Group under C20, for which I was the primary policy writing coordinator and final publications manager for the following two publications.
The Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Working Group committed to holistically examining and addressing the multifaceted dimensions of inequalities and disadvantages experienced by people of all genders. Our efforts reflected the global commitment to ensure gender equality, and recognise that this is a cross-cutting issue that affects all aspects of sustainable development. In doing so, the GEWE Working Group reinforces an approach to equality and development through an understanding that mutual respect and compassion, regardless of gender, are to be at the core of global governance for societies and the planet to flourish sustainably.
Through this lens, the GEWE Working Group’s focus centred on six interconnected sub-themes that approach gender equality from the perspectives of: Education & Skills, Economic Empowerment & Sustainable Livelihoods, Social-Cultural Implications including Engaging Men and Boys toward Gender Equality, Safety & Security, Environmental & Disasters, and Physical & Mental Health. Furthermore, plausible policy pathways, promising practices, and institutional mechanisms were highlighted to enhance capacities and resources and mainstream equity and inclusion across sectors.
After months of consultations with thousands of CSOs worldwide, the Working Group successfully held an International Summit on April 22-23, 2023. The Summit was a great success, where CSOs from around the world came together to deliberate on the proposed policy recommendations, condensed them into a short-list of the most critical policies, and then democratically selected the top recommendations to be submitted to the G20. Senior, global experts in each of the six interconnected sub-themes supported the CSO dialogues and offered their wisdom in a series of panel and keynote talks. Key recommendations and Udaaharans were announced.
Overall, a total of 60 collaborative events were held by the GEWE WG from January until July 2023, with a total of 15,108 participants (12,731 participants offline and 2,377 participants online) from 73 countries. The GEWE Working Group also organised mass outreach campaigns to raise awareness about women’s empowerment and gender equality, called the One Million Lights Campaign and Gender Equality Pledge. Under these campaigns, outreach activities have been conducted in more than 1,227 locations, with more than 600000 total participants.
