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

Qualifications

• 2016-2020: University of Cambridge (UK), PhD in Sociology
• 2010-2012: University of Oxford (UK), MPhil in Development Studies
• 2008-2010: Jawaharlal Nehru University (India): MA in Economics
• 2005-2008: Delhi University (India): BA (Hons.) in Economics

Awards and grants

• 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.

I am currently 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 aims 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 will especially focus on the regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

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.

Previous to the PhD at Cambridge, I worked for three years at the World Bank, as an Economist and as a Labour and Gender Specialist.

Publications

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Teaching

• 2022-2023: Lecturer – M.Phil. in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge
• 2022-2023: Dissertation Supervisor, Department of Geography, for two students (Topic 1: Public toilets and women’s right to citizenship in India; Topic 2: Women hawkers and work in Vietnam.)
• 2021-2022: Lecturer – “Gender and Development”, Paper: Development: Theories, Practices, Policies, Part IB Tripos, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (class size: 102 students)
• 2021-2022: Supervisor –  Paper: Development: Theories, Practices, Policies, Part IB Tripos, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
• 2021-2022: Supervisor – Urban employment in Paper 7: The Geographies of Global Urbanism, Part II, Tripos, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
• 2021-2022: Supervisor, Dissertation topic and research-design development, for all  Part II Tripos Geography students at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge
• 2019-2020: Supervisor – Sociology 5, Statistics and Methods, Human, Social and Political Science (HSPS) Tripos, University of Cambridge.
• 2018-2019: Supervisor – Sociology 5, Statistics and Methods, Human, Social and Political Science (HSPS) Tripos, University of Cambridge.

Other related activities

• 2022-2023: Dissertation Examiner, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
• 2022-2023: Admissions Committee, Tripos in Geography, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge
• 2021-2022: Examiner, 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