Kritika Gosain, M.A.

Kritika completed her Bachelor’s in Humanities and Social Sciences from the University of Delhi. Throughout her graduation, she was involved in projects that aimed at social intervention for sustenance at the local level. Her undergraduate years involved her introduction to the challenges and issues of development through the medium of discipline-based research work. Following this, she completed her Master’s in Society and Culture from the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar. Drawing from socio-psychological frameworks such as Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) structure, her thesis work examined the societal discrimination faced by people with epilepsy. The research tried to examine the challenges associated with stigma faced by PWE in the course of looking for potential marriage partners and occupational opportunities by studying them through the lens of classical and contemporary sociological theories such as Erving Goffman’s “Theory of Stigma” (1963) and Kimberley Crenshaw’s “Theory of Intersectionality” (1989). In addition to this, her employment experience in the non- governmental sector analyzing health policies pertaining to gender rights in India and governmental policies through comprehensive quantitative and qualitative methods provides her an edge into understanding the regulatory structures of developing nations.

research project

India is one of the largest producers of sugar accounting for approximately 20% of the world’s total sugar. Sugarcane harvesting is one of the most extremely intensive, skillful and risky forms of agricultural practice which includes cutting, binding the bundles and loading and transporting it to the factories via bullock carts, trucks and tractors. The district of Beed in the Indian state of Maharashtra alone provides four to 0.5 million laborers for the purpose of sugarcane farming. A majority of these are informal, contract laborers, most of them belonging to the lower castes. The issue regarding the health of these laborers is aggravated since the state or sugar factory owners refuse to recognize them as formal laborers even when the labor courts have mandated it.(Chaudhari, 2020) . But the workers are facing an unusual phenomenon wherein, a single district of Beed is a witness to a third of its female sugarcane laborers being subjected to forced hysterectomies, ten times the national average. The research will explore this phenomenon through the lens of transition in the experience of womanhood post these forced hysterectomies felt by these female sugarcane workers. It will also highlight the impact of this loss of
womanhood on the psychological well-being of these workers. It will also focus on the rise of a corrupted health industry built around the exploitation of economically weaker female migrant laborers working in the sugarcane farming industry by understanding it through the contemporary Theory of Intersectionality by Kimberly Crenshaw (1989).

research publications

“Understanding the role of stigma and misconceptions in the experience of epilepsy in India: Findings from a pilot study“ Gosain, K., & Samanta, T. (2022). Understanding the role of stigma and misconceptions in the experience of epilepsy in India: Findings from a mixed-methods study. Frontiers in Sociology, 7. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2022.790145

Acceptance of Research Paper named “Women’s health issues in farming: A matter of concern or denial?-Hysterectomy among female farmers ” at the Economic empowerment of tiny agricultural sectors in India conference sponsored by NABARD

Acceptance of Research paper named “ CHANDRABATI RAMAYANA – The revolutionary translation of the epic Ramayana “ at International Conference on English Literature and Linguistics, Spain

conferences

Participated in the International Conference on Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development and Design (2017), Royal University of Bhutan, Bhutan fellowship includes intensive communication, writing, social and behaviour change communication training; practical assignments; and mentoring by SBCC professionals.

Participated in the Digital National Conference on Sustainable Innovation for Rural Integration hosted by Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. (2022)