I am active in academic research and publishing relating to WASH and I am currently working with colleagues at different universities on the topics below:
Sanitation workers and intersectionality
In collaboration with Dr. Sally Cawood (Lancaster University), Dr. Mariam Zaqout (UCL) and Prof. Barbara Evans, I published a journal paper on the need for equity and inclusion debates in the WASH sector to engage further with the rights of sanitation workers. I published a blog with Sally in March 2021 which explores the role of artificial intelligence in eliminating manual scavenging in India and Bangladesh for FemLab.co.
I was on the organising committee for the first Sanitation Workers Forum in November 2021. The organising committee comprised of volunteer MSc, PhD students, researchers and professionals based in the UK, USA and India working on and passionate about the topic of sanitation labour. Organisational partners include the Initiative for Sanitation Workers, a collaborative partnership for global advocacy on sanitation workers between ILO, WaterAid, WHO, World Bank and SNV. I contributed to the ‘In conversation with…’ video series discussing the importance of intersectionality in sanitation labour rights, which is available to watch on Youtube.
Immersive research methods in India
I am writing a book chapter with Prof. Mona Iyer, CEPT University, for The Routledge Handbook of Field Research, called ‘Thinking about methods in practice: participatory and immersive’. This chapter draws on the experiences of collaboration between a British Gujarati researcher with Cerebral Palsy, CEPT University, and the Urban Management Centre in Ahmedabad, to call for the need for increased focus on slow fieldwork as a route to inclusion for researchers with disabilities, based on my field experience in Ahmedabad in early 2023. The book is due for publication in 2024.
Cooking and disability in low- and middle-income countries
Since December 2023, I have been working with Prof. Nora Groce at UCL to publish some papers on cooking and disability in low- and middle-income countries as a Visiting Scholar.
Providing water in shared toilets for menstruating women and girls in India
In collaboration with Prof. Mona Iyer, Faculty of Planning, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, and Aasim Mansuri and Jigisha Jaiswal, Center for Water and Sanitation at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, I have published a journal paper. This paper discussed the need to provide water for menstruating women and girls in shared urban toilets in the context of the ongoing Swachh Bharat Mission activities in India, and is available here.
Water heritage in India
In early 2023, I conducted some formative fieldwork to explore the challenges of sustaining water heritage in the Ahmedabad area of India. As part of this work I visited Adalaj Stepwell to inform two blogs for the Rural Water Supply Network about what we can learn from past relationships between rural communities and ancient water points and explored what lies ahead for India’s stepwells in the future. I also conducted a visit to Sarkhej Roza in Ahmedabad to look at the threats of urbanisation in India for water heritage sites. I am keen to expand this area of work in future.