Mumbai Campus,
Chairperson Advanced Centre for Women's Studies, School of Development Studies
M.A. (Kannur University), M.Phil. (Hyderabad University), Ph.D. (IIT -B)
bindhulakshmi [at]tiss[dot]edu Bindhulakshmi is an Associate Professor and Chairperson at the Advanced Centre for Women's Studies in the School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai. She has a PhD in Sociology from IIT Bombay, and an MA and an M.Phil in Social Anthropology from Kannur University and the University of Hyderabad, respectively. Before joining TISS, Bindhulakshmi worked as a Post-doctoral fellow at the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (Currently Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Bindhulakshmi has many years of experience in doing ethnographic fieldwork in the United Arab Emirates to understand the transnational mobility of Indian migrant women domestic workers. She has published widely on gendered migration, transnational labour, and domestic work.
Recently, she has been actively engaged in teaching and research in critical disability studies. Her research explores questions of ageing, mental health, and care arrangements. She has recently completed a collaborative research project that explored the lived experiences and perspectives of caregivers of children with neuro-diversity, with a specific focus on the Autism spectrum.
Currently, she is engaged in a research project that looks at invisible disabilities and long-term care, with a focus on institutional care arrangements in India.
Feminist Disability Studies
Gender, Labour and Migration
Mental Health
Medical Anthropology
Ethnography
Book chapters:
Pattadath, Bindhulakshmi (2021) ‘Changing Meanings of Home: Migrant Domestic Work and its Everyday Negotiations’ in Women in the Worlds of Labour: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Perspectives, Mary E. John and Meena Gopal (Eds), Orient Blackswan
Pattadath Bindhulakshmi., Arocha L., Chattopadhyay R., Gopal M (2020). Worker-Driven Initiatives to Tackle Modern Slavery. In: Leal Filho W., Azul A., Brandli L., Özuyar P., Wall T. (eds) Decent Work and Economic Growth. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Pattadath, Bindhulakshmi (2018) 'Mobility, Accessibility, and Inclusion: Spatial politics of gendered migrant domestic labour' in Migration, Gender and Care Economy Edited by Irudaya Rajan and Neetha N Pillai, Routledge, New Delhi, 2018
Pattadath, Bindhulakshmi (2018). 'Gender, Mental Illness and the Everyday: Understanding the Interface of Psychiatry with the Lives of Women Diagnosed as Mentally Ill' in Re-Imagining Sociology: Feminist Perspectives, Edited by Gita Chadha and N.T Joseph, Routledge, New Delhi, 2018
Pattadath, Bindhulakshmi (2018).'Making sense of legality: Everyday resistance and survival tactics among undocumented women domestic workers in the labour market of U.A.E.' in Workers Movements and Strikes in the 21st century, Edited by Madhumita Dutta, Jörg Nowak, Peter Birke, Rowman & Littlefield, 2018
Pattadath, Bindhulakshmi and Annelies Moors. 'Moving between Kerala and Dubai: Women Domestic Workers, State Actors, and the Misrecognition of Problems’ in Illegal but Licit Transnational flows and Permissive Polities: Ethnographies of Human Mobilities in Asia (Eds. Barak Kalir and Malini Sur), 151-168. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012.
Pattadath, Bindhulakhmi. 'Gender Mobility and State Response: Indian Domestic Workers in the U.A.E.' in in Governance and Labour Migration: India Migration Report 2010 (Ed. S. Irudayarajan),163-181. New Delhi: Routledge, 2010
Pattadath, Bindhulakshmi. 'When the Diagnosed talk: Ethnographic Narratives on Mental illness', in Bordering Biomedicine (Eds. Peter Twohig and Vera Kalitzkus), Rodopi Publication, Amsterdam, NY. 2006.
Journal Articles:
Ranganathan, Priya, Sandeep Tandon, Sufiyan Khan, Pooja Sharma, Sanjeev Sharma, Gauravi Mishra, Bindhulakshmi Pattadath, Sindhu Nair, Pankaj Rajput, and Carlo Caduff. "Investigating stigma during the COVID-19 pandemic: Living conditions, social determinants and experiences of infection among employees at a tertiary referral cancer centre." Journal of Cancer Policy 36 (2023): 100412.
Pattadath Bindhulakshmi., Arocha L., Chattopadhyay R., Gopal M (2020). ‘Women, Migration and Labour Exploitation: Challenging Frameworks’ in Journal of Migration Affairs vol II, issue 2, March 2020
Arocha, L., Gopal, M., Pattadath, B., & Chattopadhyay, R. (2020). ‘Ways of Seeing’—Policy paradigms and unfree labour in India. Anti-Trafficking Review, (15), 137-153.
Pattadath, Bindhulakshmi (2020). ‘Mad Studies and Feminist Disability Studies- Interconnections, gaps, and points of contestation’, Special issue on Gender and Disability, in Peace prints: South Asian Journal of Peace Building. Volume 5, No. 1 (Special issue editor: Prof. Anita Ghai).
Noronha, J., Malik, A., Bindhulakshmi, P., & Karimundackal, G. (2020). Oncology Residency–a Burning Issue, Results of a Questionnaire-Based Survey on Psychological Well-being of Oncology Residents. Indian Journal of Surgical Oncology, 1-7.
Pattadath, Bindhulakshmi (2020). The blurred boundaries of migration: transnational flows of women domestic workers from Kerala to UAE in Social Change, Sage publications, New Delhi.
Pattadath, Bindhulakshmi. 'Experience as “Expert” Knowledge: A Critical Understanding of Survivor Research' in Mental Health, Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 23(3), (2016): 203-205
Pattadath, Bindhulakshmi. 'The ‘Diagnosed’ Body: Embodied Experiences of Mental Illness' in Indian Anthropologists, 42,1 (2012): 39-54
Book reviews:
P, Bindhulakshmi (2016) ‘A Complex Picture’ review of Sarojini N and Vrinda Marwah (Eds.): Reconfiguring Reproduction: Feminist Health Perspectives on Assisted Reproductive Technologies, in The Book Review Volume XL, No. 7
P, Bindhulakshmi. (2012). Review of S. Irudaya Rajan and Marie Percot (eds.): Mapping Indian Migration: Historical and Current Perspectives. In Indian Anthropologists, 106-108.
P, Bindhulakshmi (2007). The Enigma of Kerala Women: A Q2 response. Review of The enigma of Kerala woman: A failed promise of literacy by Swapna Mukhopadhyay (Ed.) in TAPASAM, a quarterly journal of Kerala Studies Volume 2. Issue 3 &4, January & April
Project Report
WINGS 2014, The World of India's Girls: A Status Report. A co-authored report published by Save the Children, New Delhi
Other writings:
Pouratva nishedha samarangalile sthree munnettangal (Women’s leadership during the protest against citizenship denial): An essay written in Malayalam for Sanghatitha Magazine, April 2020, Vol. 18, No. 7
‘Feminist ethics of care: reflecting on Annelies’ engagement with epistemology’, in ‘On Anthropology, Activism, and Affection: A tribute to Annelies Moors. This was part of a collection of essays published in December 2019 as a tribute to Prof. Annelies Moors, University of Amsterdam.
Pattadath, Bindhulakshmi, 'Disability, exclusions, and the maintenance of corporeal norms' in Caffe Dissensus, August 14, 2016.
Pattadah, Bindhulakshmi. Garhika thozhilalikalum Niyama Parirakshayum ( Domestic workers and Legal protection) in Tharjini Magazine, August 2008, Vol 4 and No.8 (in Malayalam)
Pattadath, Bindhulakshmi. ‘Manoroga Chikitsa: Anubhavakhyanathinte Sadhyathakal’ (Treating Mental illness: Possibilities of Experiential Narratives) in Pachakuthira, November 2004. (in Malayalam).
In MA programme:
1. Women, History, and Society: feminist theories and perspectives
2. Feminist perspectives on Gender and Health.
3. Feminist research methodology/Practices
In PhD Programme:
1. Feminist perspectives on Discipline, Methodology, Methods, and Tools
2. Disability, Body, and Intersectionalities
3. Perspectives on Labour, Migration, and Globalization
