“Having acted as Amita’s PhD supervisor, I was constantly impressed by her passion for and commitment to her work. Since completing her doctorate, she has extended this drive into her role as freelance consultant. Amita is able to combine strong academic skills and knowledge of all aspects of research with great communication skills and an ability to write for different audiences, as demonstrated in conference presentations, academic journal papers, and in various social media fora.”
Dr. Julie Fisher, Loughborough University
“Amita’s work for the Sanitation Learning Hub at the Institute of Development Studies focused on incontinence and using PhotoVoice to uncover the barriers people face accessing WASH services. This has demonstrated her ability to uncover and engage with blindspots which may result in people being left behind in the drive to meet the SDGs. These topics are often overlooked, have relatively little written on, and need a champion to give them the attention they deserve.”
Sanitation Learning Hub, Institute of Development Studies
“Amita is the world leader in WASH and the menopause in low and middle-income countries. She is a hard working professional who is passionate about making a difference for people who are excluded and they have limited opportunity to share the challenges they face. I expect her to be one of the key sector leaders in the areas of equality, non-discrimination and inclusion in the coming decades”.
Dr. Sarah House, Independent WASH Consultant / Public Health Engineer
“We recently engaged Amita to work with us on considering how we might more effectively address disability issues in the development of our Modern Energy Cooking Services programme. Amita was a delight to work with, she produced a series of well-produced reports that reflected not only her capability as a researcher and communicator but also her ability to think laterally in transferring her specialist knowledge from the water and sanitation sector to the clean cooking sector.”
Prof. Ed Brown, Professor of Global Energy Challenges, Loughborough University
“I have worked with Amita on a number of publications and I find that she is an absolute pleasure to work with. She is always enthusiastic for the project, proactively contributes and critically reviews. She is also a strong advocate of the rights and needs of perimenopausal women everywhere, always looking for opportunities to get their voices heard.”
Claire Rosato-Scott, University of Leeds
“Amita’s passion for the work has been really great. She brings energy and dedication which is much appreciated. Amita has worked with us to do a scoping survey and consolidation of responses to enable us to decide on a way forward. She has been able to bring academic rigour to the analysis. She was always happy to refine to meet our requirements and kept us well updated on progress.”
WaterAid UK
“I have worked with Amita for over 10 years, during that time she has always produced high quality, timely, and important research. She is able to write in multiple styles – an academic article just as easily as a policy report. It is always a pleasure to work with her and I look forward to ongoing collaborations in the future.”
Prof. Jenny Pickerill, University of Sheffield
Highly recommend this session as I was privileged to attend a session last week. It got me thinking about how little user experience is considered in WASH infrastructure provision. It was an honest conversation that was so refreshing and eye opening.
Chilala Kapulu, Hidden WASH needs of perimenopausal women participant
I really enjoyed it, particularly the conversations with the other participants! I think we all learnt a lot – from you and from each other. You have lit a fire under us, that is for sure! I really liked the way you presented people’s own voices, that was very powerful.
Virginia Roaf, Sanitation and Water for All, Hidden WASH needs of perimenopausal women participant
This grows sensibility towards unspoken needs of a certain group. This can be used in developing a more holistic approach in planning, inclusive of people from all walks of life, and their specific needs.
Mayank Pandey, CEPT University, Hidden WASH needs of perimenopausal women participant
Getting to know about this sensitive issue which never gets addressed in our society and then there is an infrastructure requirements for them. It was perfect … will try to be more sensitive when talking about equity, accessibility and inclusive nature of the facilities provided
Niket Dalal, CEPT University, Hidden WASH needs of perimenopausal women participant
Understanding the utmost needs during perimenopause which are known but unsaid in public
Masters in Urban Infrastructure student, CEPT University
Our whole team – including the quantitative researchers! – found the training session incredibly rewarding, and it helped us design our own PhotoVoice work investigating off-grid sanitation in South Africa, Kenya and Peru. We particularly enjoyed hearing from a variety of researchers about how they’ve incorporated PhotoVoice into their own WASH work
Dr. Dani Barrington, University of Western Australia
Earlier this year, I attended this insightful workshop on “The infrastructural needs of Perimenopausal women”, and I couldn’t agree more with the need for greater support and resources in this area. As we work towards creating more inclusive and supportive cities, it’s important to ensure that we’re meeting the unique needs of citizens, including those going through perimenopause.
Rachana Kansagra, CEPT University
As someone who focuses their research around Gender, especially menstrual health needs, I was surprised and thankful for how much I was taught in Dr Bhakta’s Perimenopause workshop. She gave insights into the social and technical needs of those going through the perimenopause, by highlighting the hidden and often underlooked needs of these individuals. I’d recommend this workshop for all those planning, designing or implementing WASH policies and programs, to ensure the needs of this often underrepresented group are recognised and met.
Hannah Robinson, University of Leeds
Since this is a very niche area of work within WASH, like the fact that the basics including the definitions were covered. The workshop allowed open discussions and offered good amount of time for participants to express. The participants included women who had been through and were going through peri-menopause. Them sharing their personal experiences worked very well. Important to note that the participants could freely express themselves thanks to the safe space created by the organisers.
Paresh Chhajed-Picha, Indian Institute of Technology and SuSaNA Forum