My research work spans formal academic collaborations and formative student-led inquiries, each contributing to a growing body of knowledge on urban marginality, governance, and infrastructure. Over the years, I have worked on interdisciplinary, multi-country research projects that explore the politics of planning, the everyday realities of sanitation access, and the lived strategies of resistance in informal settlements. These academic collaborations have been grounded in partnerships with institutions in India, the UK, Switzerland, and Brazil.
Alongside these, my early research as a student laid the foundation for many of the questions I continue to pursue, focusing on how people navigate urban exclusions, challenge state narratives, and reshape the city from its edges.
Explore featured research below, where each project reflects my commitment to grounded inquiry, collaborative knowledge production, and critical engagement with the urban condition.
Project Research
Collaborative Research | Towards Sustainable Sanitation in India and Brazil (TOSSIB)
Role: Research Associate | January 2020 – March 2023
Collaborating Institutions: University of Manchester (UK), University of São Carlos (Brazil), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (India)
TOSSIB was a multi-country research initiative aimed at understanding the components of various types of interlinked sanitation systems and their interaction with other social, technical, and environmental systems in urban areas in India and Brazil. Anchored in the broader Sustainable Infrastructure for Cities (SUSINFRA) initiative, the project explored the socio-technical, ecological, and institutional dimensions of sanitation access and management in rapidly urbanizing contexts.
As Research Associate at TISS, I was deeply engaged in both fieldwork and coordination across international teams. My contributions included:
- Supporting dissemination efforts and contributing to academic and policy publications
- Co-developing research methodology and tools to examine sanitation access across seven urban sites in India with varying levels of service provision and housing tenure
- Coordinating data collection, including household surveys (350+ households) and stakeholder interviews, while training and supervising field teams
- Collecting and synthesizing secondary and archival material to contextualize sanitation challenges within policy and governance frameworks
- Facilitating knowledge exchange across partner institutions in India, the UK, and Brazil, and contributing Indian case insights to comparative cross-country analysis
- Organizing a multi-stakeholder workshop and a national symposium to present research findings and enable dialogue between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers
The project’s timeline coincided with the global COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly disrupted planned field activities. In response, I played a key role in adapting our research protocols- developing new guidelines for safe fieldwork, facilitating remote collaboration across partners, and ensuring data quality under highly constrained conditions. These adaptive strategies enabled the project to continue generating grounded, policy-relevant insights despite unprecedented operational challenges.
Key Outputs and Contributions:
- Co-organized a Multi-Stakeholder Workshop on Sustainable Sanitation (January 2020, TISS Mumbai) to frame key research questions with practitioners, communities, and government stakeholders
- Co-organized a National Symposium on Urban Sanitation (September 2023, TISS Mumbai), bringing together policymakers, civil society organizations, sanitation entrepreneurs, and academics to explore sectoral transitions, challenges, and future directions
This project enabled me to further integrate research, policy dialogue, and practice in the domain of urban sanitation, while also deepening cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaboration.
For More Details on the Project Visit: Towards Sustainable Sanitation in India and Brazil (TOSSIB)
Collaborative Research | Urban Planning and the Heterogeneous City
Role: Researcher | December 2015 – December 2016
Collaborating Institutions: Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), India & École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
This interdisciplinary project examined the technical, political, and social controversies surrounding the formulation of the Mumbai Development Plan (DP) 2014–2034. Conducted jointly by TISS and EPFL, the research aimed to understand the disjuncture between planning practices and the lived realities of a heterogeneous city, using Mumbai as a critical case.
Working as one of three core student researchers, I was involved in:
- Identifying and interviewing key stakeholders from government, civil society, and professional networks
- Transcribing and translating interview data
- Conducting direct observations during planning meetings, consultations, and public campaigns
- Gathering and analyzing secondary and historical data to help construct a timeline of key events in the DP controversy
- Volunteering documentation support to Humara Sheher Mumbai Abhiyan, a civil society coalition advocating for inclusive and participatory planning, providing insider insights into its internal deliberations and strategies
These experiences informed a grounded analysis of the “politics of planning”, a central theme I contributed to within the broader research framework that also examined the politics of land regulation and the politics of categories.
As part of the project’s academic output, I co-authored two chapters in the edited volume Politics of Urban Planning: The Making and Unmaking of the Mumbai Development Plan 2014–2034 (Springer, Singapore), serving as lead author on one chapter and second author on another. I also supported copyediting across the volume. The project culminated in two international workshops held at EPFL (Lausanne) and TISS (Mumbai).
Collaborating with sociologists, architects, and political scientists, I brought to the team the perspective of a social scientist and development practitioner, one familiar with navigating both theoretical frameworks and the practical realities of urban governance in Mumbai.
Related publication:
Politics of Urban Planning: The Making and Unmaking of the Mumbai Development Plan 2014–2034 (Springer, 2023)
To know more about my specific contributions in this edited volume, please read Politics of Participation in Urban Planning and Mumbai’s Development Plan 2014-2034.
Collaborative Research | Exploring Good Practices in Urban Cohesion
Role: Research Associate | December 2015 – May 2016
Collaborating Institutions: Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), India & University of East London (UEL), UK
As part of a bilateral UKIERI research initiative, I worked on a collaborative project between TISS and UEL that explored strategies to overcome urban deprivation and unfreedoms among marginalized communities in Mumbai. Anchored in the School of Social Work at TISS, the project focused on the role of social movements in securing housing rights and basic services for residents of informal settlements.
My responsibilities included:
- Analyzing qualitative data using thematic analysis
- Co-authoring a detailed research report submitted to project partners
- Designing qualitative research tools and frameworks
- Identifying and engaging with community leaders and members of the Ghar Bacho Ghar Bano (GBGB) movement
- Conducting and transcribing in-depth interviews and group discussions
- Analyzing qualitative data using thematic analysis
Mentored by a senior faculty member at TISS, I took a lead role in shaping the inquiry, drawing on my training in social work and prior experience in urban fieldwork. The research culminated in a case study of Sathe Nagar, an informal settlement in Mumbai, highlighting the residents’ collective strategies- legal, social, and political- to resist eviction and reclaim urban space.
This project deepened my understanding of urban deprivation as a lived experience shaped by law, identity, and state policy. Importantly, it marked the beginning of a recurring theme in my research: the value of practical, localized knowledge in navigating and reshaping urban governance systems.
The findings were presented at the final UEL-TISS UKIERI workshop in October 2013 at TISS Mumbai.
Student Research
Exploring Urban Inclusion: Spatial Planning & the Urban Poor in Chandigarh
MPhil Dissertation | 2014
MPhil in Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)
This dissertation grew out of a deep discomfort I felt with the idea of inclusion being something the State bestows, as if people on the margins are merely waiting to be included in a system designed without them. My time at the Centre for Urban Policy and Governance at TISS gave me the conceptual tools and space to ask: what if inclusion isn’t just about legal entitlements or policy recognition, but about everyday negotiations, resistance, and the quiet persistence of people in claiming their space in the city?
Chandigarh, the planned, high-modernist city often celebrated for its orderly design, became my site of inquiry. As a resident of this city, I had my observations, interactions, and experiences. However, as a researcher and urban practitioner, I was drawn to its paradoxes: the city built to represent post-colonial India’s aspirations, yet one where informal settlements continue to be pushed to the peripheries. I focused on Bhaskar Colony, a community that defied the logic of master plans and resisted relocation to remain within the city’s core. Their story challenged the clean lines of planning and opened up difficult questions about whose realities planning accommodates and whose it erases.
Through this research, I came to see that urban inclusion is not a linear or benevolent act of policy. It is deeply political, shaped by both the structures of the State and the agency of people. Real inclusion, I argue, requires planning processes that are flexible, responsive, and porous, open to influence from below, and attentive to the shifting, lived realities of urban life.
This work continues to inform my perspective on cities, not as fixed designs, but as spaces constantly being remade through struggle, negotiation, and hope.
To know more about platforms where research findings were shared, please visit the webpage: Speaking Engagements
Employability of Mentally Challenged Individuals in a Vocational Training Centre in Chandigarh
Master’s Dissertation | 2009
M.A. in Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)
This dissertation explored how employability is perceived and shaped for persons with mental retardation (now referred to more inclusively as persons with intellectual disabilities) within a vocational training centre in Chandigarh. The study engaged three key stakeholders: individuals receiving training, their parents, and the centre’s staff and leadership.
Using a qualitative, case-based approach, the research highlighted the varied skills, preferences, and aspirations of persons with intellectual disabilities, and the multiple barriers they face in transitioning to employment. While the vocational training centre offered some foundational skill-building, its standardized approach and limited focus on placement emerged as key limitations. The study emphasized the importance of building alliances between families, institutions, and the broader society to create enabling environments for employment.
This early work helped me understand the significance of stakeholder perspectives, the limits of institutional interventions in the absence of systemic change, and the value of individualized, rights-based approaches in disability inclusion. These insights continue to inform my engagement with questions of inclusion, equity, and capability in urban and social policy contexts.
Recognition: Commendation received from Smile Foundation in the form of a cash prize for M.A. dissertation.
