This study estimates and decomposes life expectancy differentials along lines of caste, religion, and indigenous identity in India, home to some of the largest populations of marginalized social groups in the world. This paper has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
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, 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 and patriarchy 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
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 was published in Health Policy and Planning.
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 has been published in PLOS One.
Assessing high-profile public messaging for sanitation behaviour change: evidence from a mobile phone survey in India
Using data from a mobile phone survey to ask about people’s knowledge of the existence and purpose of the 2014 Swacch Bharat Mission (SBM), India’s high-profile program to tackle open defecation, we find that, at the time of the survey (between 2016 and 2018), no more than one-third of adults in any state are aware that the SBM intends to promote toilet and latrine use. This study has been published in Waterlines.
Latest Media
Coercion, construction, and ‘ODF paper pe’: Swachh Bharat according to local officials | India Forum
The Swachh Bharat Mission has turned out to be a top-down programme in which villagers are often coerced into building latrines, with relatively little focus on latrine use.
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.
Protecting health workers: Protective gear is not enough, infection control practices are critical
The practices of health workers will have a major impact on the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The government should be as focused on providing supplies and training to small-scale providers as to major hospitals. We must train and protect our health workers so that they can care for us.
Why we still need to measure open defecation in rural India | Ideas for India
On October 2, the government will host the UN Secretary General and other international delegates at the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention, to celebrate India’s progress on ending open defecation. While the recently released National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey data seem to show that open defecation is being eliminated from rural India, this conclusion is unfortunately premature.