Dr Garima Sahai

Research Associate, working with Prof. Bhaskar Vira, Dame Barbara Stocking and Prof. Pauline Rose.

Labour; gender; work; youth; public policy and development practice in low and lower-middle income countries especially India.

Biography

Career

• 2021 – Post-doctoral Research Associate, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
• 2013 – 2016: Economist, The World Bank
• 2012 – 2013: Research Assistant, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI)

Qualifications

• University of Cambridge (UK), PhD in Sociology
• University of Oxford (UK), MPhil in Development Studies
• Jawaharlal Nehru University (India): MA in Economics
• Delhi University (India): BA (Hons.) in Economics

Awards and grants

• 2022-2023: Economic and Social Research Council, Social Science Impact Fund, University of Cambridge (Co-applicant)
• 2021-2022: Economic and Social Research Council, Social Science Impact Fund, University of Cambridge (Named researcher on the application)
• 2020-2021: Cambridge Humanities Research Grant (Named researcher on the application)
• 2016-2019. Rajiv Gandhi Cambridge Trust Scholarship
• 2019-2020. Cambridge Trust (Write-up Grant)
• 2019-2020. Cambridge Political Economy Trust Grant
• 2019, 2019 & 2020. Lucy Cavendish College Research Grant
• 2019 & 2019. Dept. of Sociology, University of Cambridge, Conference Grant
• 2019. International Sociological Association, Conference Grant
• 2019 & 2018. Dept. of Sociology, University of Cambridge Research Group Grant for Individual in the Labour Market Research Group
• 2017. Dept. of Sociology, University of Cambridge, Research Grant
• 2010-2012. Bharat Petroleum Scholarship for Higher Studies: 2-year award covering partial tuition fees and maintenance for the M.Phil.

Research

My research interests centre on issues of youth, gender, and work in the Global South. I am especially interested in interdisciplinary approaches, and the intersections between research, policy, and international development practice.

1. Green jobs and youth voices

I am currently the research and project lead on a multi-partner project on Green Jobs and Youth Voices. The project focusses on four countries in sub-Saharan Africa — Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa and Uganda. The creation of green jobs could simultaneously address the twin pressures of youth underemployment and climate change. The objective of this project is to research the availability, attitudes, understandings, and possibilities for green job creation with and for young people. The project, we hope, will help outline new strategies for enabling ‘unheard’ young people to secure dignified and fulfilling work; support the aspirations and plans of these young people, to enable them to take control of their own futures, particularly in the context of COVID-19 and climate change; and help shape policy and regulatory mechanisms that structure the work for them.

2. Commission on Young People and Work

I have been working with Prof. Bhaskar Vira, Dame Barbara Stocking and Prof Pauline Rose to build a Commission on youth and work in the Global South. The Commission aimed to bring together key political, business and civil society leaders, practitioners, and researchers to produce a comprehensive set of recommendations to tackle the pressing issues around youth and work in developing countries. The Commission especially focusses on the regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

3. Understanding factors that structure young women’s entry into non-traditionally female occupational training in India

My doctoral work focussed on young women’s entry into non-traditionally female jobs in India. Motivated by the low and declining female labour force participation in India and recognising occupational gender segregation as a key reason for it, my PhD study asked: what are the factors that structure entry into non-traditional job training for young women? Informed by 76 semi-structured interviews primarily with young women in non-traditional training programs (driving, and electrician and electronic mechanics), and a traditional training course (beauty parlour), the study examined the lived experiences of young women in slums in Delhi and drew out implications for policy.

Publications

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Teaching

Postgraduate lecturing, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge

• 2022-2023: Gender, Mobility and Work, MPhil. in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies, Centre for Gender Studies
• 2023-2024: Gender, Mobility and Work, MPhil. in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies, Centre for Gender Studies

Undergraduate lecturing, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge

• 2021-2022: “Gender and Development”, Paper: Development: Theories, Practices, Policies, Part IB Tripos, (class size: 102 students)
• 2022-2023:”Gender and Development”, Paper: Development: Theories, Practices, Policies, Part IB Tripos
• 2023-2024: “Young women’s participation in the labour market in the global South”, Paper: Geographies of work and employment, Part II Tripos.
• 2023-2024: “Green Jobs in sub Saharan Africa “, Paper: Geographies of work and employment, Part II Tripos.
• 2023-2024: Designing a Research Question, Research Methods, Part IB Tripos
• 2023-2024: Designing Research Projects in the Global South, Research Methods, Part IB, Tripos

Undergraduate dissertation supervision, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge

• 2023-24
• 2022-23

Undergraduate supervision, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge

• 2023-2024: Geographies of Work and Employment, Part II Tripos.
• 2022-2023: Development: Theories, Practices, Policies, Part IB Tripos
• 2022-2023: Citizenship, cities and civil society, Part IB Tripos
• 2021-2022: Development: Theories, Practices, Policies, Part IB Tripos
• 2021-2022: Urban employment in Paper 7: The Geographies of Global Urbanism, Part II, Tripos.

Undergraduate supervision, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge

• 2019-2020: Sociology 5, Statistics and Methods, Human, Social and Political Science (HSPS) Tripos,
• 2018-2019: Sociology 5, Statistics and Methods, Human, Social and Political Science (HSPS) Tripos

Undergraduate supervision, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge

• 2021-2022: Dissertation topic and research-design development, for all Part II Tripos Geography students at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge
• 2022-2023: Dissertation topic and research-design development, for all Part II Tripos Geography students at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge

Other related activities

• 2022-2023: Dissertation Examiner, MPhil in South Asia, Centre for South Asia, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge
• 2022-2023: Dissertation Examiner, Geographical Tripos, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
• 2022-2023: Admissions Committee, Tripos in Geography, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge
• 2021-2022: Examiner, Geographical Tripos, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge

External activities

• Bye Fellow in Geography, Murray Edwards College
• Affiliate Researcher, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge
• Affiliate Researcher and Convenor, Young People and Work, Cambridge Global Challenges, International Development Research@Cambridge
• Associate Researcher, REAL:Research for Equitable Access and Learning Centre, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge