M.A.,
Ph.D. (Bharathiar University)
sivakami@tiss.edu
Sivakami is a Professor at the Center for Health and Social Sciences, School of Health Systems Studies (SHSS), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She was also the Chairperson of the Centre for Health and Social Sciences, one of the four centres in SHSS, between June 2015 to June 2021. Before joining TISS, she was Associate Professor and Assistant Professor at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore from 2002 to 2010. Sivakami joined TISS in 2010 as Associate Professor.
Sivakami broadly works in the area of Demography, Gender and Health. She was trained as a quantitative researcher and has vast experience conducting large-scale surveys like GATS, NFHS and DLHS. Over a period of time, she has also gained experience in conducting qualitative research studies. More recently, most of her research involves a mixed methodology approach. She has published widely in peer-reviewed national and international journals such as the Lancet, BMJ Global Health, BMJ Open, Journal of Global Health, Journal of Biosocial Science, Asian Population Studies, Health Transition Review, Economic and Political Weekly, Demography India and Sociological Bulletin amongst others.
Currently, Sivakami serves as an Academic Editor at PLOS Global Public Health and a member of the Editorial Board for the journal BMC-Women’s Midlife Health. She is a member of the Ethics Committee at the ICMR-NIRRH, Mumbai. Sivakami is an Internal Committee (IC) member under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal), Act-2013, Bharat Petroleum Corporation LTD.
She has received research grants from major national and international funding organisations, including the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, ICMR, UNFPA, UNICEF, MRC (UK), ESRC (UK), and NIHR (UK). Sivakami was awarded the "Linnaeus-Palme Fellowship" in 2015 to visit Karolinska Institute, Sweden. She was also awarded a “Global Spotlight International Research Seed Grant” 2014 from the University of Minnesota, USA.
Sivakami was a recipient of the Dr C. Chandrasekaran Award in 2000 for the best paper (titled “Does Maternal Employment Influence Child Care and Morbidity? Evidence from Poor Populations”) presented by a young demographer at the Millennium Conference on Population Development and Environmental Nexus (XXIII Annual Conference of the IASP held at New Delhi).
Sivakami has MA and PhD in Population Studies from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. The title of her PhD work was “Mother’s Work Participation and Child Health: A Study in Poor Localities in Tamil Nadu, India”.
Sivakami's broad research area includes Demography, Gender and Health. Her specific research areas of interest include Sexual and Reproductive Health including Menarche and Menstrual Hygiene; Migration and Health; Maternal and Child Health; Issues around Childlessness and Menopause; Health Consequences of Gender-Based Violence; Impact of Programs and Policies Related to Health with a gender focus.
Wankhed Rucha and Sivakami M. 2023. World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2023: What are India’s Challenges? The Hindu. Published on May 28. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/menstrual-hygiene-day-india-challenges-taboo-period-equity/article66900205.ece
Raghu Raghavan, Brian Brown, Saliah Hussain, Sanjana Kumar, Amanda Wilson, Nadia Svirydzenka, Manoj Kumar, Ameer Ali, Anagha Chandrasekharan, Asha Banu Soletti, Monica Lakhanpaul, Meena Iyer, Chitra Venkateswaran, Chandra Dasan, Muthusamy Sivakami, Sam Manickam, Andy Barrett & Mike Wilson (2023) How do Muslim service users, caregivers, and community members in Malappuram, Kerala, use their faith to address the challenges associated with mental ill health? Mental Health, Religion & Culture. DOI: 10.1080/13674676.2023.2169268
Babbar Karan and Sivakami M, 2023. Promoting Menstrual Health: Towards Sexual and Reproductive Health for All. ORF Issue Brief No. 613, February 2023, Observer Research Foundation.
Srivastava Surbhi and Sivakami M. 2023. Enforcing the ban on ‘Two-Finger test’. The India Forum. Published on Jan 11. https://www.theindiaforum.in/gender/enforcing-ban-two-finger-test
Kanougiya S, Sivakami M, Daruwalla N, Osrin D. 2022. Prevalence, pattern, and predictors of formal help-seeking for intimate partner violence against women: findings from India’s cross-sectional National Family Health Surveys-3 (2005-2006) and 4 (2015-2016). BMC Public Health. 22(1): 2386. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-14650-3.
Ansari Salik and Sivakami M. 2022. Families Must Be Built On Love And Care, Not Gender And Sexuality. Feminism in India. Published on Oct 11, 2022. https://feminisminindia.com/2022/10/11/families-must-be-built-on-love-and-care-not-gender-and-sexuality/
Behera Deepanjali and Sivakami M. 2022. World Mental Health Day: Time to Prioritise Perinatal Mental Health. The Wire. Published on Oct 10, 2022. https://science.thewire.in/health/perinatal-mental-health-intervention/
Babu B V, Sharma Y, Sivakami M, et al. 2022. Inclusive partnership and community mobilization approaches to improve maternal health care access among internal migrants in nine Indian cities, Journal of Migration and Health,
Vol 6, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmh.2022.100130.
Raghavan, Raghu, Brown B, Coope J and Sivakami, M. 2022. Resilience, mental health and Migration. Eds. Bhugra D, D Moussaoui, and Craig, T J. Oxford Textbook of Social Psychiatry. Oxford University Press.
Arora Lakshya, P. M. Bhujang & Sivakami M. 2022. Understanding discrimination against LGBTQIA+ patients in Indian hospitals using a human rights perspective: an exploratory qualitative study, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, 29:2. DOI: 10.1080/26410397.2022.2104678
Sharma S and Sivakami, M. 2022 “God will decide her fate”: the trajectories of women with traumatic spinal cord injury in India. Disability and Rehabilitation, Published online: 02 Jun 2022. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09638288.2022.2083245
Babbar K and Sivakami, M. 2021. The surrogacy Regulation Act 2021: Another Attempt to Reproduce a Heteronormative Patriarchal Society? Feminism in India. Published on Feb 2, 2022. https://feminisminindia.com/2022/02/02/the-surrogacy-regulation-act-2021-another-attempt-to-reproduce-a-heteronormative-patriarchal-society/
Pandey, D and Sivakami, M. 2021. How Inclusive Is the Transgender Persons Act? Evidence From the Ground. Journal of Psychosexual Health. First Published on Dec 11, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/26318318211064132
Kanougiya, S., Sivakami, M. and Rai, S. 2021 Predictors of spousal coercive control and its association with intimate partner violence evidence from National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-2016) India. BMC Public Health 21, 2185. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12232-3
van Eijk AM, Jayasinghe N, Zulaika G, Linda, M and Sivakami M et al.2021. Exploring menstrual products: a systematic review and meta-analysis of reusable menstrual pads for public health internationally. PLoS ONE 16(9). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257610
Raghavan R, Brown B, Coope J, Crosseley M, Sivakami M, et al. 2021. Idioms of resilience: Mental health and migration in India. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. August 2021. doi:10.1177/00207640211042916
Rai S and Sivakami M. 2021. Involving Men in Family Planning Could Cure India's 'Population Control' obsession. The Wire. Published on August 06, 2021. https://thewire.in/gender/men-family-planning-india-population-control-reproductive-rights
Baber K, Saluja D and Sivakami M. 2021. How Socio Demographic and Mass Media Factors Affect Sanitary Items Usage Among Women in Rural and Urban India? Waterlines. Vol. 40, No. 3. https://practicalactionpublishing.com/article/3045/how-socio-demographic-and-mass-media-factors-affect-sanitary-item-usage-among-women-in-rural-and-urban-india
Kanougiya S, Daruwalla N, Gram L, Sivakami M, Osrin D. 2021 Domestic Coercive Control and Common Mental Disorders Among Women in Informal Settlements in Mumbai, India: A Cross-Sectional Survey. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. July. doi:10.1177/08862605211030293
van Eijk AM, Sivakami M, Thakkar MB, et al. 2016. Menstrual Hygiene Management Among Adolescent Girls in India: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. BMJ Open, Vol. 6 (3).
Behera D, Sivakami M, and Behera, M R. 2015. Menarche and Menstruation in Rural Adolescent Girls in Maharashtra: A Qualitative Study. Journal of Health Management, Vol. 17 (4).
Gawde NC, Sivakami, M and Babu, BV. 2015. Building Partnership to Improve Migrants’ Access to Healthcare in Mumbai. Frontiers in Public Health, 3:255. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2015.00255.
Pati A and Sivakami, M. 2015. Mothers’ Hygiene Behaviour and Beliefs About Diarrhoea: A Case Study of a District in Eastern India. Social Science Spectrum, Vol. 1 (1).
Singh V and Sivakami, M. 2014. Menopause: Midlife Experiences of Low Socio-economic Strata Women in Haryana. Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 63 (2).
Sivakami M. 2011. Does Utilisation of Maternal Health Care Services Vary Across Regions in Karnataka? Evidence from the District Level Household Survey, 2002-2004. In S C Gulati (Eds). Population, Health and Human Resources in India's Development. Academic Foundation, New Delhi.
Sivakami M. 2010. Are Working Mothers in South India Investing Less Time in the Next Generation? Asian Population Studies, Vol 6 (1).
Book Published
Current Projects
Global Health Research Group on Disrupting the Cycle of GEndered Violence & Poor Mental Health among Migrants in precarious Situations (GEMMS) (with Prof. Anuj Kapilashram, University of Essex and Dr Aparna Joshi and Prof. Amita Bhide, TISS)
Completed Projects at TISS, Mumbai
Mental Health Literacy in Urban and Rural Communities in Kerala, India: An Interdisciplinary Approach Using Applied Theatre Methodology (MeHeLP India) (International Interdisciplinary Project with Prof. Raghu Raghavan, De Montfort University and others, UK, and Dr. Asha Banu Soletti, TISS)
2. Exploring Mental Health and Resilience Narratives of Internal Migrants in India Using Community Theater Methodology (International Interdisciplinary Project with Prof. Raghu Ragavan, De Montfort University and others, UK, and Dr. Nilesh Gawde, TISS)
Global Adult Tobacco Survey (India 2) (with Prof. T Sundararaman, Dr. Priyanka Dixit, Dr. Nilesh D Gawde, Dr. Hemal Shroff and Dr. V Gowri)
Review of Menstrual Hygiene Management in Schools in India (with Penelope Penelope Phillips-Howard, LSTM, UK, Prof. Harshad Thakur and Dr. Narendra Kakede, TISS)
Projects completed in the past at Population Research Center, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore between 2002-May 2010
Involvement in Large Scale Surveys as a team
Completed Project as PI and Co-PI at Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore between 2002-May 2010