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Mahapatro, Sandhya

Nabakrushna Choudhary Centre For Development Studies

ORCID iD 0000-0001-7628-5469
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About

Dr. Sandhya R. Mahapatro is Associate Professor at the Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies (NCDS), Bhubaneswar, India. She is an interdisciplinary social scientist specializing in development economics, population studies, migration, health, gender, labour, and social inequalities. Her research examines the intersections of demographic change, socioeconomic development, health systems, migration processes, and gender relations, with a particular focus on vulnerable and marginalized populations in India.

Dr. Mahapatro obtained her Ph.D. in Development Studies from the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru. She also holds a Master's degree in Population Studies from the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, an M.Phil. in Economics, and an M.A. in Economics from Berhampur University, Odisha. She was awarded the prestigious NWO-WOTRO Postdoctoral Fellowship and conducted postdoctoral research through the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, in collaboration with ISEC. During her academic journey, she received several competitive fellowships, including doctoral fellowships from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).

With over two decades of teaching, research, and policy engagement experience, Dr. Mahapatro has held academic and research positions at several leading institutions. Prior to joining NCDS, she served as Assistant Professor in Economics at A. N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna, where she contributed extensively to research, teaching, and policy-oriented studies. She has also worked as Guest Faculty and Senior Project Officer at IIPS and held research positions at ISEC.

Dr. Mahapatro has an extensive publication record comprising books, edited volumes, journal articles, book chapters, working papers, and policy reports. Her work has appeared in internationally reputed journals published by Springer, Elsevier, Sage, Routledge, Emerald, Taylor & Francis, and Nature Publishing Group. Her recent scholarship addresses themes such as maternal and child health, healthcare inequalities, labour migration, dietary diversity, ageing, women's employment, caste and gender disparities, food security, and social protection. She has authored the book Towards Newborn Survival: Challenges and Priorities (2022) and edited volumes on health, nutrition, COVID-19, migration, and development.

A significant aspect of her research focuses on evidence-based policy interventions. She has led and collaborated on numerous nationally and internationally funded projects supported by organizations including UNICEF, UNFPA, ICSSR, the University of Aberdeen, the Government of Odisha, the Government of Bihar, and other national agencies. Her current projects include research on migration and adaptation in Odisha, millet-based livelihoods, state finances, food systems, and family planning among adolescents and young adults.
Dr. Mahapatro has actively contributed to academic capacity building through the organization of national and international conferences, workshops, training programmes, and data-analysis courses. She regularly serves as a resource person, keynote speaker, panelist, and session chair at academic forums across India. Her expertise in quantitative and mixed-methods research has supported training initiatives in survey analysis, migration studies, gender research, and public health.

She has successfully supervised doctoral research on themes including health inequalities, migration and women's empowerment, street vending, ageing, dietary diversity, and socioeconomic mobility. Several of her doctoral scholars have completed their Ph.D. under her guidance and are contributing to academia and policy research.
Beyond academia, Dr. Mahapatro has served on expert committees involved in policy formulation and programme monitoring, including initiatives related to population policy, slum policy, women's empowerment, and social development. She is an active member of professional associations such as the Indian Association for the Study of Population (IASP), the Indian Association for Social Science and Health (IASSH), and international networks focusing on gender and migration.

Through her research, teaching, mentorship, and policy engagement, Dr. Sandhya R. Mahapatro continues to contribute significantly to advancing knowledge and evidence-based policymaking on population, health, migration, gender, and development in India and beyond.

Employment

  • Nabakrushna Choudhary Centre For Development Studies Associate Professor
    2023 - Present

Education

Education history is unavailable.

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (29)