Office: FB 610, IIT Kanpur, 208016, Uttar Pradesh

Email: eshachat@iitk.ac.in

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. I hold a PhD in Sociology (University of Maryland College Park, 2020) and a MA in Economics (Jadavpur University). My primary research interests are in the fields of demography and gender, work, and family. My work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Population and Development Review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Population Studies, Demographic Research, and PLoS One. My research has been featured in several prominent media outlets in India like The Hindu, The Print , Livemint, and Business Standard

I have received several fellowships from the University of Maryland  during the course of my doctoral studies (Harriet B. Presser Fellowship, Suzanne M. Bianchi Summer Research Grant, and the William Form Summer Fellowship).  I have also received travel grants from the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, International Development Research Centre, and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, as well as the  2018-2019 Policy Communication Fellowship from the Population Reference Bureau and the African Institute for Development Policy.

Outside of academia, I have worked as a consultant at the World Bank on projects on ‘Water and Gender’, ‘Demographic Trends in South Asia’, and the ‘Global Review of Aging Cities’. Currently, I am an invited member of an advisory group created by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, covering the theme ‘Equity and Inclusion’ in implementing a new scheme titled “Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement in Technical Education (MERITE)” and an affiliate of the "Women’s Empowerment: Data for Gender Equality (WEDGE)" project.

I am currently looking to hire PhD students. Interested candidates may contact me via e-mail.