Nitya Rao | University of East Anglia (original) (raw)

Papers by Nitya Rao

Partnerships for Girls’ Education, 2005

Graduate Institute Publications eBooks, Apr 17, 2017

Nutrients, Feb 2, 2024

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

Even with higher economic growth and an overall reduction in poverty, there exists child undernut... more Even with higher economic growth and an overall reduction in poverty, there exists child undernutrition, maternal undernutrition and diverse forms of micro nutrient deficienciesa phenomenon labelled as the South Asian Paradox. Eradicating undernutrition requires a dedicated effort to alleviating child undernutrition, as South Asia accounts for forty percent of the world's undernourished children (see Table 1). Agricultural growth, by enabling farming households to grow more/better food for self-consumption, and opening opportunities for employment, can contribute importantly to this process. Women engaged in labour-intensive agricultural work at almost every stage of cultivation. The photo from Koraput district in Odisha, India, shows Kharaguda village women transplanting rice.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Dec 30, 2022

Education, Migration and Development

Engendering Climate Change

This book focuses on the gendered experiences of environmental change across different geographie... more This book focuses on the gendered experiences of environmental change across different geographies and social contexts in South Asia and on diverse strategies of adapting to climate variability. The book analyzes how changes in rainfall patterns, floods, droughts, heatwaves and landslides affect those who are directly dependent on the agrarian economy. It examines the socio-economic pressures, including the increase in women’s work burdens both in production and reproduction on gender relations. It also examines coping mechanisms such as male migration and the formation of women’s collectives which create space for agency and change in rigid social relations. The volume looks at perspectives from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal to present the nuances of gender relations across borders along with similarities and differences across geographical,socio-cultural and policy contexts. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of sociology, development, gender, economics, environmental studies and South Asian studies. It will also be useful for policymakers, NGOs and think tanks working in the areas of gender, climate change and development.

Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2016, 2016

This chapter seeks to explore the continuities and changes in the aims and scope of Compare over ... more This chapter seeks to explore the continuities and changes in the aims and scope of Compare over the past 46 years. While making explicit its development focus, and concern for human wellbeing in a context of growing inequalities, it has nevertheless remained open to the diversity in research questions, problems, methodologies and approaches in the study of educational policies, practices and systems, within a comparative framework. While describing the changes in the aims and scope of the journal, in light of emerging priorities, the chapter also focuses on innovations that have sought to make the journal inclusive of a multitude of different voices, breaking to some extent artificially imposed hierarchies of ‘whose voice counts’ within the academe.

Nature Food

Injustices are prevalent in food systems, where the accumulation of vast wealth is possible for a... more Injustices are prevalent in food systems, where the accumulation of vast wealth is possible for a few, yet one in ten people remain hungry. Here, for 194 countries we combine aquatic food production, distribution and consumption data with corresponding national policy documents and, drawing on theories of social justice, explore whether barriers to participation explain unequal distributions of benefits. Using Bayesian models, we find economic and political barriers are associated with lower wealth-based benefits; countries produce and consume less when wealth, formal education and voice and accountability are lacking. In contrast, social barriers are associated with lower welfare-based benefits; aquatic foods are less affordable where gender inequality is greater. Our analyses of policy documents reveal a frequent failure to address political and gender-based barriers. However, policies linked to more just food system outcomes centre principles of human rights, specify inclusive de...

Despite growing interest and recognition of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) as a nature- b... more Despite growing interest and recognition of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) as a nature- based solution, there is limited empirical evidence in countries like India on its role in reconfiguring goals on environmental functions (such as biodiversity, waste management, water recycling, micro-climate regulation, etc.) and social wellbeing (such as food and nutrition security, gender relations, work burdens, land tenure and community ties). A need to address this gap led to the ideation of the project ‘Urban and peri-urban agriculture as green infrastructures’ ( UPAGrI ). When UPAGrI started in 2019, the research on UPA in India was thin but growing. However, the practical experience of urban farming across Indian cities is thriving and diverse, built on decades of bottom-up experimentation. Within the landscape of our ever-changing cities, we found vibrant communities-of-practice sharing seeds and knowledge, engaged online influencers discussing composting and water reuse, and s...

Sustainable Cities and Society

Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 2022

Agriculture remains vital in ensuring the food security of developing economies like India, yet i... more Agriculture remains vital in ensuring the food security of developing economies like India, yet increasing rural-urban migration, an aging farm population, and waning interest of rural youth in agriculture are emerging concerns. This paper focuses on the aspirations of farm parents and their children in agriculture, the challenges they confront, and potential solutions. We draw on qualitative data from two rural sites in Southern India, different from each other in their agro-ecological and social contexts, to point to the material, social, relational, and structural factors shaping aspirations. First, agrarian distress, resulting from climate variability and market uncertainty, affects farm households' socioeconomic status, resulting in farmers' aspiration failure in agriculture. Farm parents then focus on educating their children, aspiring for secure non-farm jobs for their sons, and finding suitable marriage partners, also in non-farm employment, for their daughters. Whil...

There are several people who have contributed to this Gender and Growth Assessment of Nigeria-gov... more There are several people who have contributed to this Gender and Growth Assessment of Nigeria-government stakeholders, donor partners, researchers and NGO workers, giving generously of their time and resources in Abuja, Kano, Lagos, Bauchi and Cross River States, as well as at the case study sites. While we are not able to name all of them, a few need mention. First, we would like to thank the funders of this assessment, DFID and CIDA, in particular Paul Healey in London, Jummai Bappah and Graham Gass of DFID in Nigeria; and Esther Egbobamien and Kennah Owoh of CIDA, Nigeria. Their support, financially and in terms of their insights and comments, have greatly strengthened this work. We could also not have completed this report without the assistance of the National Bureau of Statistics. We appreciate the Director General of NBS, Dr Akinyosoye, Mr. Ekezie, and Mr. Busari for facilitating access by the team to relevant datasets. Thanks are also due to the Central Bank of Nigeria for making some of the macroeconomic data available to us. We would like to acknowledge the help of Geoffrey Greenwell of OECD and Rose Mungai of the World Bank for their insights. The in-depth macroeconomic analysis that forms this report has largely been conducted by Elissaios Papyrakis 1 , with some support from the rest of the team. While the key insights from this analysis have been presented in the National Overview, this report is potentially an invaluable resource, methodologically and in terms of the detail of analysis, for both policymakers and research analysts interested in the theme of gender and growth in Nigeria.

Modern food systems operate on a global scale, and many countries depend on imported food to feed... more Modern food systems operate on a global scale, and many countries depend on imported food to feed their populations.