Hi, I’m Payal Hathi.

I am a PhD candidate in Sociology and Demography at the University of California, Berkeley.

About

My research focuses on social inequality and health in the Global South, with two main lines of inquiry. The first investigates the association between health outcomes and social disadvantage along lines of gender, caste, and religion. The second analyzes how dynamics of gender inequality shape the demographic measurement of fertility and mortality. I am trained in quantitative and demographic methods, and also use qualitative methods in my work.

In 2021, my co-authored paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, won PAA's Dorothy S. Thomas Award for the best graduate student paper on the interrelationships among social, economic, and demographic variables. My other research has been published in Demography, in Contraception, and in several other journals, including in Economic and Political Weekly, a leading journal of policy and social science in India.

Latest Research

Measurement of population mental health: evidence from a mobile phone survey in India

Measurement of population mental health: evidence from a mobile phone survey in India

This study tests two questionnaires in measuring mental health in a mobile phone survey in population-representative samples in the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra. Both questionnaires measured worse mental health in places with lower human development, but only the adapted SRQ The adapted SRQ identified women as having worse mental health than men in all three states. This study is published in Health Policy and Planning.

When women eat last: Discrimination at home and women’s mental health

When women eat last: Discrimination at home and women’s mental health

Using original data from a population representative mobile phone survey in Bihar, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra in 2018, this study finds that gender discrimination in the form of women eating only after the men in the household have eaten, is associated with worse mental health, even after accounting for differences in socioeconomic status. This study is published in PLOS One.

Latest Media

Our Essential Workers Need Essential Care | EPW

Our Essential Workers Need Essential Care | EPW

Through personal interviews of healthcare workers in India, the state of front-line workers in dealing with Covid-19 in the country is discussed. Lack of personal protective equipment and beds as well as the caste system that operates when it comes to doing cleaning work in the hospitals aggravates the already debilitating condition of healthcare personnel. Despite being the most important stakeholders of health in rural areas, the accredited social health activists are leading a life full of struggles.

© Payal Hathi. All rights reserved. Site design by Jay Kannaiyan.

Back to top