I am a Ph.D. candidate in Medical Anthropology and a UBC Public Scholar. Broadly, my research focuses on development narratives within public health interventions. In my doctoral project, I examine the impact of India’s sanitation intervention program, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or the Clean India Campaign, on marginalized communities in urban areas. I obtained my master’s degree in Sociology in 2018, concentrating on the influence of ethnic nationalism on the self-identity of Malaysia’s Tamil Muslims. I was affiliated with the Centre for India and South Asia Research (CISAR) as an IAR Fellow during the 2021/2022 academic year, and with the Liu Institute for Global Issues in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA) as a Liu Scholar in the 2023/2024 academic year.

Research Keywords:

Caste, development, gender, infrastructure, public health, sanitation, slum, social justice, toilets, and urban India.

Research Summary:

My doctoral project examines how India’s sanitation intervention program, Swachh Bharath Abhiyan (SBA), perpetuates systemic inequality among marginalized communities. Despite the construction of 110 million toilets across India, open defecation remains a lived reality for many. Research suggests sanitation access and usage in the Indian subcontinent is linked to caste, class, and gender. Thus, through an ethnographic study of toilet politics in Chennai, India, I examine the role of sanitation infrastructure in (re)producing inequality, specifically along caste, class, and gender, in urban India.

Peer-reviewed article

2019. “Transition in Self-Identity: A Sociological Narrative of Tamil Muslims in Malaysia.” Identity 19 (4): 277-293. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2019.1678040 (With Norasikin Basir)

Book review

2022. Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the ravages of history by Paul Farmer. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines 56 (3): 689-691. https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2022.2080918

Public scholarship

2024. “Why Swachh Bharat Is a Clean Mission, but a Dirty Job.” The Times of India, October 7, 2024. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/exposing-the-hidden-struggles-of-sanitation-workers-under-the-swachh-bharat-mission/articleshow/113992946.cms. (With Priti Narayan)

2024. “Protecting India’s Sanitation Workers: Addressing Period Taboos in Menstrual Waste Management.” BMJ Global Health (Blog). June 7, 2024. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjgh/2024/06/07/protecting-indias-sanitation-workers-addressing-period-taboos-in-menstrual-waste-management/.

2022. “Solving India’s sanitation scourge.” East Asia Forum, July 2, 2022. https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2022/07/02/solving-indias-sanitation-scourge/

Conference Presentations

2022. “Rendering sanitation technical: How toilets reproduce colonial ideas of public health in Urban India.” Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting 2022. Seattle, WA. Nov. 9-13

2018. “A Sociological Analysis of Identity: The Case of Tamil Muslims in Malaysia.” Paper presented at International Conference on Language, Culture, and Society (ICLCS 2018). ISTAC: Kuala Lumpur. October 24, 2018. (With Norasikin Basir)

2024 – Liu Scholars Award

2022 – Nehru Humanitarian Graduate Scholarship in Indian Studies, CISAR

2022 – Society for Medical Anthropology (SMA) Travel Award

2022 – UBC Public Scholars Initiative (PSI)

2022 – Institute for Asian Research (IAR) Fellow & Publication Award

2020 – Four Year Fellowship (4YF)

2020 ­– President’s ­Academic Excellence Initiative Ph.D. Award

2020 – International Tuition Award

Ph.D. Supervisor: Dr. Vinay Kamat

Committee members: Dr. Sara Shneiderman and Dr. Priti Narayan (Geography).

Socio-Cultural Anthropology; Medical Anthropology