TISS

Name of Position: Research Officer 

Number of Positions: 2 

Remuneration: Rs 30000 per month (negotiable based on experience) 

Duration: One year contract 

About the Project: Action Research on Child Brides in Udaipur District, Rajasthan (Vikalp Sansthan and TISS) 

India has 21 percent adolescent (10-19 years of age) population. While adolescence itself is a stage of transition in one’s life with various challenges, child marriage i.e. marriage before the legal age of 18 for girls and 21 years for boys is a social practice in some parts of India that doubles the biological, physical, psychological and social challenges for this group. In India, 47% women aged 21-24 years said to have been married before 18 years (NFHS-III, 2005-06). This proportion is 32 % for men aged 25-29 years who got married before 21 years of age. With the gender bias towards girls, early marriage of girls is higher in some states like Rajasthan (58%) and the practice is more prevalent in rural than urban areas. While there is no systematic evidence, Vikalp Sansthan, based on its decade long field work with adolescents in Rajasthan has experienced that there is difference in the life experiences of those brides who are young and staying in marital homes than those who are relatively older in age. Vikalp observed that the former are more vulnerable to various forms of violence in their marital homes compared to the latter but any engagement for their empowerment by external agency is equally difficult for both groups staying in marital homes than those staying with their own parents. To ensure that there is effective interventions done to address the issue of child brides, Vikalp Sansthan and TISS have developed an action research to be intiated for a year in select villages of Udaipur district in Rajasthan. The research proposes to conduct an ongoing analysis of interventions by Vikalp Sansthan, deepen existing strategies and suggest new ways to address the issues of child brides, violence and agency of the women who have been child brides. The two positions of Research Officers will be located in Udaipur at Vikalp Sansthan office and they will be supervised by the Faculty team at School of Social Work, TISS.

The Research Officer will be responsible to lead the research work in assigned villages of Udaipur district with TISS and Vikalp team. Some of the tasks expected will be:

• Desk review of available literature 
• Supervision and participation in data collection at district and village level 
• Participating in training and monitoring of field level workers 
• Liaising with key stakeholders and state level partners 
• Preparing and writing periodic reports based on the data analyzed  

Required Qualification, Competencies and Experiences 

 Masters degree in Social Work or any Social Science subject  

• with at least 2 years of work and/or academic experience in research (qualitative and quantitative)  
• and/or at least 3 years' experience of work on women's issues including some research experience (i.e. research report writing/co-authoring, or leading research study 
• Should be fluent in Hindi and English (written and spoken) 

Must have some knowledge of feminist research methodologies & action/intervention research

Must be willing to be based in Udaipur, Rajasthan if/when recruited, and to travel and train 1 (self and others) for the research project, data collection, report writing and documentation 

How to Apply 

Interested candidates may send in their CVs at the following email Id: vikalpresearch@gmail.com by 22nd Feb 2016.

 Only shortlisted candidates will be intimated for interviews