Faculty Profile

• Ph. D (Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi)
• M.Phil ((Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi)
• MA (Sociology, CSSS, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi)
• B.Sc. (Geography Honours, Lady Brabourne College, University of Calcutta)

2010-2014

1. Associate Fellow (Faculty member) at V. V. Giri National Labour Institute (Ministry of Labour and Employment, Govt. of India) NOIDA 2010-2014.Responsibilities undertaken for the Ministry of Labour and Employment, GOI.

• Member Convener, National Sectoral Innovation Council- Occupational Safety and Health (NSIC-OSH), Government of India as per office order D.O. No. DG/5/007/2010-11/Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India 27 January ‘12
• Member of Working Group on “Setting up of Recommendations for the Tea Plantation Sector Workers”, National Advisory Council, Government of India, 2013.
• Member of Working Group on “Occupational Safety and Health for the Unorganised Workers”, National Advisory Council, Government of India, 2013
• Associate Editor, Indradhanush, bi-monthly in-house newsletter of VVGNLI, 2012-2014

1998-2010

Associated in various capacities with research institutes and the NGO sector in Delhi like the Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS), Sama - Resource Group for Women and Health, Centre for Education and Communication (CEC), Indian Institute of Dalit Studies (IIDS), PRIA (Society for Participatory Research in India).

At CEC (2005-2009) research and advocacy activities organised:

1. Conducted a Research study on Housing and Land Rights for Tea Workers in Closed and Abandoned Tea Gardens – A case of Kathalguri T.E., North Bengal- Draft Report submitted, 2007.

2. Coordinated with important stakeholders of the plantation industry towards International Conference in Delhi (2005), with Institute of Social Development in Kandy, Sri Lanka (2006) and National Seminar at Kumily, Kerala (2007) as part of the International Tea Day campaign.

3. Coordinated International meetings at the with trade unions and labour support organisations on “International Coalition for Just Tea” and “Afro-Asian Labour Solidarity”, at the World Social Forum, Nairobi, Kenya, January 2007 in association with Kenyatta University, Nairobi.

4. Coordinated an International Consultation of Trade Unions and other stakeholders towards South Asia Campaign on the Adoption and Ratification of ILO Convention on Labour Standards for Fish Workers at Negembo, Sri Lanka, February 2007.

5. Coordinated a South Asian level meeting on “Exacerbating Vulnerabilities: Impact of Trade Agreements on Women Workers” in New Delhi on 15-16 October, 2008 with Committee for Asian Women (CAW), Bangkok.

6. Supervised two internships programmes

• “Implications of Policies on the Livelihood Rights of Traditional Inland Fishers in Barwani district, Madhya Pradesh”
• “Industrial Relations in Tea Gardens in West Bengal”

At Sama - Resource Group for Women and Health (2003-2005),

Conducted a Research study on the “Interrelationship between Gender and Malaria among the rural poor in Jharkhand”; Small Grants Programme on Gender and Social issues in Reproductive Health Research, supported by Ford Foundation. Fieldwork was coordinated with a local organisation Mahila Jagriti Kendra, Gomia Block, Jharkhand. Report published by Achuta Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Science and Technology, Trivandrum, India, 2005

• Gender and Social Determinants of Health in Labour
• Caste, Ethnicity and Social Exclusion
• Workplace Health and Safety
• Urban Labour Market Precarity and new forms of work organisation

Courses taught at University

BA Sociology Programme

• Economy and Society
• Conceptualising Rural and Urban Societies
• Culture, Identity and Society
• Sociological Theory
• Health and Society
• Research Methods
• Indian Society: Continuity, Change and Paradoxes

MA Sociology Programme

• Sociology of Work and Health
• Economy, Polity and Society
• Organisational Exposure
• Sociology of Indian Society

MA in Public Health

• Introduction to Public Health Research

PhD Sociology Programme

• Methods and Techniques in Social Research
• Sociology of Agriculture

Research Supervision at University

PhD supervision (ongoing):

• Health, Migration and Kinship: A Sociological Study of a Leprosy Complex in Delhi
• Sociology of Health, Labour and Plantation: Case study of a tea estate in Assam
• Gender and Aging: Care, Support and Social Capital in Later Life (tentative)
• State, Violence and Resistance: A Study of the Gorkhaland Movement 1986 (tentative).

M. Phil (Awarded)

• Title of Dissertation: Tracking Transforming: Understanding Reproductive Health in Akhrawhal village in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, M.Phil in Development Practice, Degree awarded, 2016.
• Title of Dissertation: Communicating Health: (Re)interpreting Illnesses and Cure in the Santal Dishom of Dulki – M.Phil in Development Practice, Degree awarded 2022.

• Received three work awards (2013-15) from the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, under the National Research Programme on Plantation Development (NRPPD), sponsored by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GOI.
• Received the RDW Grant Award for paper presentation at the 8th Conference of the Regulating for Decent Work Network on Ensuring Decent Work in times of Uncertainty at the International Labour Office, Geneva, Switzerland, 10-12 July 2023

• Sitting Ducks Post-COVID? Work Organisation and Compounded Health Risks for Darjeeling Tea Workers, Social Change, 53 (4), 550-561, 2023. DOI: 10.1177/00490857231203359.
• “The Price of Tea: Women’s workers’ predicament in North Bengal tea plantations”, Working Paper No 15, Action Research on Women’s Labour Migration in India, Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS), New Delhi, 2019.
• “Family labour in Small-holding plantation sector: A study with special focus on women and children in selected areas of South India”, NLI Research Studies Series No. 134/2019, 2019, V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA.
• “Breaking the Bondage: Organising Brick kiln workers in rural Punjab” chapter in in S. George and S. Sinha (Ed.): Redefined Labour Spaces: Organising Workers in Post-Liberalised Era, Routledge Publishers, 2017. ISBN – 13-978-1138201194
• “Workplace Health and Safety: A study of select small scale manufacturing Units in Delhi”, NLI Research Series No. 128/2017. V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA. ISBN: 978-93-82902-54-6
• “Women’s Labour in the Tea Sector: Changing Trajectories and Emerging Challenges”, chapter in K.J. Joseph and P.K. Vishwanathan (Ed.) Globalisation, Inclusive Development and Labour: Case of India’s Plantation Sector, Routledge Publishers, 2016. ISBN 978-1-138-21955-7
• “Whether Contractualisation Adds to Health Hazards: A study of select Manufacturing units in Delhi in Labour and Development, 22 (2), Special Issue on Labour and Health, V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA, December 2015, ISSN 0973-0419
• Book Review: Meta Deka: Women’s Agency and Social Change: Assam and Beyond in Social Change Vol 45 (3), pp 502- 504, Council for Social Development, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2015, ISSN 0976-3538
• “Vulnerables in the Small Tea Grower Sector: Locating Ethnicity and Gender interface in the STGs Value Chain in North Bengal”, Discussion Paper No. 48, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, under the National Research Programme on Plantation Development (NRPPD), sponsored by Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GOI, 2015.
• “Regulatory Frameworks on Health and Safety: An Overview” in Helen Sekar and Dhanya M.B. (Eds.): “Workers’ Rights and Practices in the Contemporary Scenario: An Overview”, V. V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA, 2013, ISBN 978-93-82902-15-7
• “Identity and Politics of Exclusivity in the North Bengal Tea Plantations: A Few Reflections” in Labour and Development, Vol 20 (1), June 2013, pp 77-88, ISSN 0973-0419
• “Changing Land Utilisation Patterns in the Tea Plantation Sector in West Bengal: Some Policy Imperatives”, Discussion Paper No. 22, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, under the National Research Programme on Plantation Development (NRPPD), sponsored by Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GOI, 2013.
• Book Review: Kancha Ilaiah: Post-Hindu India A Discourse on Dalit –Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolution, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2009. Accessible at http://dalitssouthasia.org/download/kanchailaiah.pdf
• An Exploratory Study on Housing and Land Rights in Closed and Abandoned Tea Gardens, Dooars, West Bengal- A Case Study of Kathalguri Tea Estate Working Paper, Centre for Education and Communication, New Delhi 2008. Accessible at http://www.cec-india.org/images/stories/pdf/CECWork_paper/Housing%20_Land%20Rights.pdf
• “Nexus of ‘Crisis’ and Reduction of Labour Cost: Contextualising Workers’ Strike in North Bengal Tea Plantations” (Darjeeling Times News Magazine, August Issue, Darjeeling 2008)
• “Nimble Fingers Unheard Voices Trade Unionism in the Tea Sector: A Gender Perspective”, Labour File, Volume 5 No 5&6 September-December 2007, ISSN 0972-673X.

Invitations and Presentations (Conferences/Seminars):

• Collectivism and Transnational Labour: Challenges of the Non-Permanent and Terminated Indian Cabin Crew’ at the 8th Conference of the Regulating for Decent Work Network on Ensuring Decent Work in times of Uncertainty at the International Labour Office, Geneva, Switzerland, 10-12 July 2023
• “Labour market precarity: A case of contractual cabin crew employees in Delhi”, 42nd International Labour Process Conference (online), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, April 12-14, 2023..
• “Fissured Politics: Who gets to negotiate what? Women workers' narratives from a tea plantation in Darjeeling”, International Conference on Contemporary Caste Gender and Minority Questions in West Bengal and Bangladesh, Department of Sociology, St Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata, 2019.
• “Identity, Politics and Marginalisation in North Bengal”, presented at International Convention of Asian Scholars - ICAS 10 at Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 20th-23rd July 2017.
• “Hierarchies at Work and Health: Case of the Tea Plantation sector in Darjeeling” presented at the British Sociological Association’s (BSA) Conference on Work in Crisis held at Leeds Business School, University of Leeds, U.K. 5-8th September 2016.
• “Changing forms of collectivisation in the tea plantation sector: Case of North Bengal” presented at a Conference on Negotiating Globalisation, Trade Unions and Labour in Contemporary India, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata (IDSK) September 22-23, 2016, Kolkata.
• “Health and Medicine in Colonial Darjeeling Tea Plantations” at the International Conference on Historical Trends and Contemporary Challenges in the Practice of Medicine in India, 29th – 30th January 2015, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras.
• “Whether Contractualisation Adds to Health Hazards? A Study of Select Manufacturing Units in Delhi” at the XXth World Congress on Safety and Health at Work (24-27th August 2014), Frankfurt, Germany.
• “Tea Plantation labour in North Bengal: Identity and Livelihood in the post crisis period”, presented at National Seminar on “Building competitiveness in a globalised world: Experience of India’s plantation sector”, organised by National Research Programme on Plantation Development (NRPPD), sponsored by Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GOI, 23-24 January 2012, CDS, Trivandrum.

Invitations and participations

• Invited as a panellist at the Delhi Convention on the rights of tea garden workers of Darjeeling-Terai-Dooars and Assam, 14th November 2022, Gandhi Peace Foundation, Delhi.
• Invited by Himal World to debate on who ‘owns’ the tea gardens? – owner, worker or Sarkar in a live local telecast from Kurseong over Charcha Chautari, 22nd April 2022.
• Invited to deliver a lecture ‘Women, work and health: an account of Darjeeling tea plantations’, webinar, organised by Dept. of Sociology, Miranda House, University of Delhi, 27th October 2021.
• Invited as a judge, National Student Seminar, organised by the Women's Studies Centre (WSC), Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, 5th March 2021.
• Invited by Darjeeling Free Society ((Social & Volunteer Based Literary Platform), to deliver a lecture (in Nepali) on the situation of the Darjeeling tea industry in a Webinar, Darjeeling: of Yester-years, Today and Tomorrow, 13th August 2020.
• Represented Sociology programme at AUD to collaborate with Department of Sociology, St Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata, International Conference on Contemporary Caste Gender and Minority Questions in West Bengal and Bangladesh, 31st October - 2nd November 2019. Participated in the panel and delivered a lecture.
• Invited to deliver a lecture at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati, Conference on Tea Plantation Economy in India: Issues of Value Chain and Decent Work" organised by Centre for Labour Studies and Social Protection, TISS. 2018.
• Invited to deliver a special lecture on “Stateless Labour: Politics of Land and Capital in Darjeeling tea plantations” presented at the National Seminar on The Condition of Plantation Labour in North Bengal Tea Zone, Department of Sociology, North Bengal University, 29th -30th August 2017.
• Invited by Director, Community Medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), Delhi to participate at the World Health Organisation Meeting on the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programmme, India, MAMC, 16 April 2015.
• Invited by the Welcome Trust to participate at their meeting on 'Funding horizons in the Humanities, Social science and Public engagement' in Chennai, 27- 28 January 2015.
• Delivered lectures on invitation at V. V. Giri National Labour Institute (VVGNLI) NOIDA across different training programmes and refresh courses on research methods since 2015.
• Invited to deliver a lecture on “Contours of Women’s Labour: Lived Realities in the North Bengal Tea Plantations of India” in a National Seminar on “Tea for David” (in honour of Prof. David Washbrook), Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, 8th December 2014.
• Invited to deliver a lecture on “Regulatory Frameworks on Health and Safety at Workplace: An Overview”, presented in National Workshop on “FPRW and Informal Economy in India” at V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA, 16th October 2012.
• Board member, Centre for Workers Management, New Delhi, an NGO working with workers and their organisation across India.
• Former Board member, Society for Labour and Development, a labour rights support organisation, New Delhi.

Research Projects

Ongoing AUD SMRGF: Post COVID-19 burden of healthcare in a select tea zone of Darjeeling, 2023-24

Completed Minor Sponsored Research Projects

• “Denial and Deprivation: Health Inequalities among the Darjeeling Tea Plantation Labour”, Seed Money Grant, Ambedkar University Delhi 2017-18.
• “Changing Land Utilisation Patterns in the Tea Plantation Sector in West Bengal: Some Policy Imperatives Funded by National Research Programme for Plantation Development (NRPPD), Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Trivandrum, 2013.
• “Women’s Labour in the Tea Sector: Changing Trajectories and Emerging Challenges” Funded by National Research Programme for Plantation Development (NRPPD), Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Trivandrum, 2014.
• “Vulnerables in the Small Tea Grower Sector: Locating Ethnicity and Gender interface in the STGs Value Chain in North Bengal”, Funded by National Research Programme for Plantation Development (NRPPD), Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Trivandrum, 2015.
• Organising in the Informal sector: The case of Bhatta Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) in the Brick kiln sector in Punjab, Funded by National Alliance for Social Security (NASS), New Delhi, 2014.
• “Workplace Health and Safety: A study of select small scale manufacturing Units in Delhi”, Funded by V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA. 2011-2013.

Other Academic Activities
Successfully organised a Research Methodology Workshop on Labour Studies, as a G20 event in collaboration with V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA from 10-12 th May 2023, at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi, Kashmere Gate Campus, Delhi. This was an open call for research scholars working on labour studies based in Delhi NCR. Report is available at
http://172.16.0.22/uploads/4/events/g20-event/g20-activity-reports/activity-report-rmw-on-labour-studies-10-12-may-2023.pdf