Aparajita Chattopadhyay

Aparajita Chattopadhyay
International Institute for Population Sciences | IIPS · Department of Population and Development

PhD

About

207
Publications
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Introduction
Working as a faculty with the Department of Population and Development , International Institute for Population Sciences ( IIPS) and a Coordinator of the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI). My research interests are ; Environment and development, Aging, Nutrition, Gender issues, Public Health and Spatial Demography. Doctoral / post-doctoral fellows are mainly working on environmental and behavioural health, spatial analysis of health, aging, nutrition, migration, labour force.
Additional affiliations
February 2002 - present
International Institute for Population Sciences
Position
  • Faculty Member
March 2008 - present
International Institute for Population Sciences
Position
  • Faculty Member
Description
  • I worked previously with Banaras Hindu University (2005-2008). I was Ad- Hoc Lecturer of IIPS from 2002 Feb-2005 Nov.
November 2005 - March 2008
Banaras Hindu University
Position
  • Faculty Member
Education
July 1999 - February 2002
International Institute for Population Sciences
Field of study
  • Aging, mortality, morbidity, life satisfaction

Publications

Publications (207)
Article
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Men's supportive stance is an essential component for making women's world better. There are growing debates among policymakers and researchers on the role of males in maternal health programmes, which is a big challenge in India where society is male driven. This study aims to look into the variations and determinants of maternal health care utili...
Article
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This paper examines recent trends in sex ratio at birth in all the major states of India, based on three rounds of the National Family Health Survey. It finds evidence of an increase in the ratio, particularly at the second-order birth among women having a first daughter in many states in the northwestern region of the country. Also, there are sign...
Article
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What are the relationships between wealth and children’s health in India’s states that are as populous as many other countries? Presenting a state-level analysis of the association between state net domestic product per capita and three children’s health indicators, this paper describes how these relationships differ in the last two rounds of the N...
Article
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There has been an increasing focus on the interplay between physical frailty and cognitive impairment, as both conditions pose significant risks for life-threatening health complications and are receiving considerable attention in global geriatric health initiatives. A recent consensus introduces “cognitive frailty,” denoting the co-existence of ph...
Preprint
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Rapid urbanization in India is contributing to heightened poor air quality. Yet research on the impact of poor air on adverse birth outcomes (ABOs) especially in the public health aspect is less in India. This study investigates the influence of air quality on birth weight (LBW) and preterm birth (PTB). Utilizing data from the National Family Healt...
Article
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Self-Help Groups (SHGs), the credit based voluntary groups in India are widely known for their potential to alleviate poverty and empower women. This research article explores a lesser-known theme. It tries to analyze the possibility of utilizing the current SHG model of the Indian Government to build and strengthen resilience of the SHG members in...
Article
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With the increasing prevalence of obesity in India, body mass index (BMI) has garnered importance as a disease predictor. The current World Health Organization (WHO) body mass index (BMI) cut-offs may not accurately portray these health risks in older adults aged 60 years and above. This study aims to define age-appropriate cut-offs for older adult...
Article
The delivery of credit through Self-Help Groups (SHG) to rural women has had remarkable outcomes, both economically and socially. We articulate findings from our field visit in two rural blocks in West Bengal on the motivation and benefits of being an SHG member and provide suggestions for strengthening the existing programme. While our analyses su...
Chapter
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Ladakh region in the Trans-Himalayas is unique with its cold and arid climate where local people live on limited natural resources. In this fragile environment, climate variations may lead to hardship for people. However, variations in the changing climate are not well understood here due to the harsh terrain and minimal weather monitoring stations...
Article
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Background Studies across multiple countries reveal that depression and sleep disorders can lead to cognitive decline. This study aims to speculate on the effect of different sources of indoor air pollution on cognition and to explore the mediation effect of depression and sleep disorders on cognition when exposed to indoor air pollution. We hypoth...
Chapter
The chapter analyzes the trends in the age at marriage and its distribution. There is clear evidence of age heaping in the reporting of age at marriage in India: a tendency to report the age near the legal age at marriage, perhaps leading to underestimation of the phenomenon. Female child marriage below legal age is widespread in East India, especi...
Article
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As the proportion of women being victims of spousal violence in India is higher than men, laws are usually framed to safeguard women. However, men who have experienced physical spousal violence are not unheard of. The study aims to provide the nationwide prevalence of physical violence against husbands and the risk factors for such violence, using...
Chapter
Introduction A large number of epidemiological research reveal that work environment factors (that is, the effects of air pollutants, coal dust, heat, noise, humidity, vibration, and so on) are highly correlated with employees’ health and well-being (Chatterjee, 2011; Dey and Pal, 2012; Krishnamurthy et al., 2017; Saha, 2018; Venugopal et al., 2020...
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The study aims to understand employees’ knowledge, awareness, and overall perception of drinking water quality in the Iron and Steel Industry in Burnpur, India. Further, this study evaluated drinking water’s physicochemical and bacteriological properties collected from different company sites. This study uses a mixed-method approach with individual...
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Background Several studies have been conducted to understand the impact of socioeconomic and maternal factors on child undernutrition. However, the past literature has not directly examined the joint impacts of fuel use and ambient pollution and have primarily focused on PM2.5. Objective This study explored the individual and community-level assoc...
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Malnutrition poses a significant risk to the older population globally, highlighting the critical role of nutrition in healthy aging. In this study, the aim is to estimate the prevalence of malnutrition among older adults aged 45–59 years and the elderly population aged 60 years and above based on their socioeconomic and demographic characteristics...
Article
Understanding the trends in crop diversity in context of changing socioeconomic and climatic factors are essential for implementing sustainable agricultural practices. The Shannon Index was adopted to calculate crop diversity across all districts of India from 2001 to 2021. High-resolution Standardized Precipitation Eevapotranspiration Index (SPEI)...
Chapter
This chapter of the book attempts to summarize the findings of previous chapters. The initial section briefs with each chapter's key findings, which need special attention. The conclusion section elaborates on possible reasons for changes in various characteristics of the population, work participation, infrastructure, and land alteration. Moreover...
Chapter
Urban expansion beyond the city’s administrative boundaries has altered the villages at the fringe to a great extent. These peri-urban villages are experiencing unforeseen demographic, economic, land-use, and environmental changes. Macro-analyses suggest a rapid increase in the population residing in peri-urban regions. Albite, micro-level assessme...
Chapter
Before merging with the city’s expansion, the rural peri-urban region mainly relies on primary economic activities. Among the major transformations as a consequence of urban expansion, change in land use affects the work participation patterns to a greater extent. Mainly the conversion of agricultural land to built-up and fallow land accelerates th...
Chapter
Urbanization and peri-urbanization first occur on land as a structural change and then transform the social and economic characteristics of people living there. The multifaceted transformations have been resulting in unforeseen challenges for rural areas. Thus, analyzing the processes and components of land alteration in peri-urban villages trigger...
Chapter
The provision of and accessibility to basic infrastructure facilities mainly drive the development of villages. In the process of urbanization, the peri-urban villages provide necessary resources starting from land to labor to the urban area. In these situations, it is very important to analyze whether the developmental processes in urban regions a...
Chapter
The peri-urban region has been considered as a dynamic interphase of spatially and temporally associated urban and rural characteristics. With the use of remote sensing and GIS, it is possible to study these associations at micro-levels. This chapter of the book explores the possible spatial associations among the population, work participation, in...
Article
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Background: Existence of gender gap in nutrition outcomes is becoming increasingly important in the concurrent times and while this gap has been studied for children and adult, it is not the case with older adults aged 60+. This study tries to address gender gap at both ends of the malnutrition spectrum by covering both underweight and overweight a...
Book
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Urban expansion beyond the city’s administrative boundaries has altered villages to a great extent. These peri-urban villages are experiencing unforeseen changes in demographic, economic, land-use, and environmental characteristics. The concept of peri-urbanization is grabbing the attention of urban planners and policymakers globally. To understand...
Chapter
This chapter tries to analyse different aspects of women’s ownership of assets and its linkages with child nutritional outcomes. Studies suggest that women’s authority in household decision-making is greatly linked to the value of their assets compared to those of their husbands. Moreover, ownership of property not only gives women the option of fa...
Chapter
Anaemia is one of the major hidden problems that affects both old and young alike. Although anaemia is more of a manifestation of iron deficiency than disease itself, it reduces vitality among old and has detrimental impact on children’s children and physical development. Pocket studies in India have confirmed the prevalence of anaemia among tribal...
Chapter
India’s story of multifaceted undernutrition is not unheard of. From malnourished children to undernourished mothers, undernutrition is pervasive irrespective of age and sex. According to National Family Health Survey (2015–2016), nearly 54% of women in the reproductive age group suffer from anaemia. This number takes a new colour when seen in the...
Chapter
Nutrition is key to National and Global Sustainable Development Goals. It is critical to prevent undernutrition and prevent growth and development issues that are irreversible and that act as impediments to maternal and child health, and sabotage numerous breakthroughs that have been achieved in learning outcomes, adult productivity, and gender equ...
Chapter
One of the industrialized states with concomitantly high rates of urbanization and economic development, Gujarat is one of the fastest growing states among the bigger Indian states. The incidence of poverty in Gujarat is lower than that in India in both rural and urban areas. The impact of the sustained economic growth on health and nutrition outco...
Chapter
This chapter is an attempt to delve into the current scenario of elderly nutrition in India. With the global elderly population crossing the 10% mark in 2020 and expected to escalate to 16% by 2050, it becomes crucial to understand that the elderly is a vulnerable and heterogeneous group that reckons attention and concerted policy interventions. Wi...
Chapter
This chapter tries to understand the current status of food and nutrition security in India based on data and reports released at national and international levels. India has made concerted efforts to convert the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into action plans to warrant access to sufficient and nutritive food. Food systems in the country ha...
Chapter
The nutritional scenario of India is often criticized due to its heavy burden of undernutrition of mothers and children. As per the recently published Global Nutrition Report 2020, India along with 87 other countries would fail to achieve the Global Nutrition Targets, 2025. Besides the burden of undernutrition, India has one of the highest rates of...
Article
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Objectives: The study explores the awareness and e-cigarette use by demographic and socio-economic characteristics of selected 14 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) countries. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: 14 countries. Participants: Surveyed population ≥15 years selected through multi-stage cluster sampling. Primary and secondary outcome m...
Article
Background The viability and virulence of COVID-19 are complex in nature. Although the relationship between environmental parameters and COVID-19 is well studied across the globe, in India, such studies are limited. This research aims to explore long-term exposure to weather conditions and the role of air pollution on the infection spread and morta...
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Introduction: Prior estimates of dementia prevalence in India were based on samples from selected communities, inadequately representing the national and state populations. Methods: From the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI) we recruited a sample of adults ages 60+ and administered a rich battery of neuropsychological tests and an informa...
Article
Indians have some of the highest fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposures in the world, not only due to high ambient air levels but also because of household combustion of biomass fuel. To understand the burdens of these exposures for older adults, we evaluated associations of indoor PM2.5 with cognitive function in India. We used data from the 20...
Article
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Elder abuse is a multifaceted public health issue. The aim of this study is to provide a concise overview of elder abuse among adults age 60 and above, at the national and state levels in India. The main objective of this research is to examine the prevalence and determinants of elder abuse in light of the latest available data, with an emphasis on...
Article
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The coastal population of Indian subcontinent experience a variety of coastal hazards, of which cyclone is the most destructive one. The paper analyses the vulnerability level of the east coastal districts of Bay of Bengal stretching for 1400 km by adopting an innovative approach to estimate vulnerability index through hazard exposure, sensitivity,...
Article
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Background Anaemia among women is a public health problem with associated adverse outcomes for mother and child. This study investigates the determinants of women’s anaemia in two Bengals; West Bengal (a province of India) and Bangladesh. These two spaces are inhabitated by Bengali speaking population since historic past. The study argues that open...
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The Suru valley of the Ladakh region in the Indian western Himalayas hasa cold-arid climate and semi-desert landscape. Any change in climate in this fragile landscape will impact the lives of local communities in the region. The region has limited weather monitoring stations due to which changing climate pattern is not well understood. Understandin...
Article
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Chronic diseases are the leading causes of disability and premature death among the elderly population in India. The study, using data from the 75th round of the NSSO survey (N = 44,631), examined the prevalence and determinants of chronic diseases among the population aged 60+ in India by applying bivariate and logistic regression analyses and use...
Article
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Using data collected in 2017–18 for the baseline wave of the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, this paper analyzes labor force participation among older adults (people aged 60 years and older) and their job characteristics, income, and associated social security benefits. Analysis of a cohort of 31,464 older adults shows that although labor force...
Article
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Urban expansion of the Indian metropolitan cities has reached the rural peripheries. There have been social, economic, and environmental consequences of this process of peri-urbanization on villages surrounding the big cities. In such situations, it becomes crucial to understand whether the peri-urban areas present opportunities for women emerging...
Chapter
Seasonal migration is widespread in rural Maharashtra where farming is mainly rain-fed. After the monsoon, the villagers face the prospect of a lengthy dry spell, and thousands of small and marginal peasant households migrate in search of work opportunities in sugar factories, brick kilns, and stone quarries in other districts of the state, or even...
Article
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The study estimates the prevalence and risk factors of accidents and injuries among iron and steel industry workers. A cross-sectional study (N=505) was conducted from November 2019 to March 2020 in Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO) Burnpur, West Bengal, India. The result shows that about 28 % of workers experienced accidents and injuries in th...
Article
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The level and relationship of child health, wealth, and basic amenities are changing fast in India. How strong are the relationships of state wealth, i.e., state Gross Domestic Product and basic household amenities like sanitation facilities with child health? Using the published National Family Health Survey 2015-16 at a macro level, the paper com...
Preprint
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Background The coastal population of Indian subcontinent experience variety of coastal hazards of which cyclone is the most destructive one. Most recently, on 20th May 2020, the super cyclone Amphan lashed with 155 km/h, as tall as a two-story building on the Eastern coast and state of West Bengal in India. In the following year 2021, another cyclo...
Article
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Spatial hot spots of COVID‐19 infections and fatalities are observed at places exposed to high levels of air pollution across many countries. This study empirically investigates the relationship between exposure to air pollutants that is, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter (SO2, NO2, and PM10) and COVID‐19 infection at the sma...
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Since the inception of the National Programme for Family Planning, messages on family planning (FP) have been promoted across India using different mass media platforms. Mass media plays an important role in disseminating important information among the masses, such as how reversible modern methods give women more reproductive choices than opting f...
Article
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Introduction: Exposure to high levels of air pollution is associated with poor health, including worse cognitive function. Whereas many studies of cognition have assessed outdoor air pollution, we evaluate how exposure to air pollution from combustion of polluting household fuels relates with cognitive function using harmonized data from India, Me...
Article
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Considering the widespread transmission of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) globally, India is also facing the same crisis. As India already has inadequate waste treatment facilities, and the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has led to significant growth of Bio-medical waste (BMW), consequently safe disposal of a large quantity of waste has beco...
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Food consumption data in terms of dietary diversity is a vital source for examining the nutrition status of mothers. Diversity in diet is a reliable proxy indicator for quality and quantity of diet in different geographic settings. This study attempts to assess, the regional pattern of dietary diversity among mothers, its determinants and link with...
Article
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Objectives The recovery rate is important to determine a country’s development towards controlling coronavirus. It is a function of myriad factors – death rate, cases requiring hospitalization, quality of care, and discharge policies, among others. India’s recovery rate is growing steadily from an earlier low of 10% to 11%. It is imperative to unde...
Article
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Male involvement in maternal health care utilization is an important contributor to maternal health, especially in male-dominated societies. This study aimed to understand the variations and determinants of women's antenatal care (ANC) utilization and institutional delivery in India and three socioeconomically less-developed states (Bihar, Madhya P...
Article
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The paper aims to understand the treatment seeking behavior and the experiences of men with male factor infertility. A cross-sectional study was conducted at consented hospitals/infertility centers in Mumbai, India in purview of the fact that men are not considered as important as a part of infertility treatment as women. An infertile man is define...
Preprint
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This study aims to study the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the air quality of Delhi by comparing the levels of air pollution (PM2.5, PM10, and NO2) before and during lockdown. The study is based on the secondary data derived from the Central Control Room for Air Quality Management, Delhi NCR. The levels of air pollution have been studied by analyz...
Chapter
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This study attempts to compare the built-up land expansion, population change, and environment in Delhi and Bangalore over two decades, i.e. 1991 to 2011. Using the demographic data from the Census and satellite data from the United States Geological Survey, we found that there is a significant dynamism in population and spatial parameters in citie...
Chapter
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Eastern India is a historically significant centre of India, the birthplace of numerous religions and a locus of influence that has shaped the history of the entire region of Asia. It is unique in its identity due to the multiplicity of faiths and ethos which have been interacting and creating different cultural realms within a single landmass. Thi...
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The fact that Bangladesh and West Bengal possess a common political and social history, language and culture to a large extent, a joint study of the two regions to understand son preference would be an interesting attempt. Comparative studies of the two regions have been undertaken to reveal how contraceptive use behaviour and its change are stimul...
Book
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This multidisciplinary book discusses and scientifically analyzes issues related to population, land use/cover (LULC) and environmental transformations in the seven most populated cities in India: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. To do so, it closely examines and compares the trends in selected population paramet...
Article
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Seasonal migration is widespread in rural central and eastern Maharashtra where agriculture is mainly rain-fed. Our study explores 350 seasonal migrant households that is defined as a household having, at least, one member who stayed away from the village for the purpose of employment for at least one month and not more than six months during the d...
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There is overwhelming scientific consensus that environmental change is currently having ecological and socioeconomical impacts at the micro and macrolevel. Over the coming decades, the impact of development, climate change, and urbanization on the ecosystem is likely to become even more ruthless in the Sundarbans. Like many other ecologically sens...
Book
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This book highlights historical and current perspectives on population issues in the Bengali-speaking states of India (i.e., West Bengal, Tripura, Assam) and Bangladesh and explores three core population dynamics: fertility, mortality–morbidity and development. Furthermore, it presents a selection of revealing cases from area-specific micro-studies...
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Non-communicable diseases are a global health challenge. Since India has a huge working age population, it becomes important to study the non-communicable disease prevalence among men in the backdrop of the ongoing demographic and epidemiological transition. By using fourth round of National Family Health Survey (2015-2016), the paper aims to measu...
Article
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After sowing the rabi crops, villages in Maharashtra are faced with severe seasonal unemployment. To tide over the lean season, thousands of small and marginal peasant households migrate to other districts of the state, and even outside, in search of livelihood opportunities in sugar factories and brick kilns. Seasonal migration compensates for the...
Article
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Background Undernutrition, an important indicator for monitoring progress of development goals, is a matter of concern in many developing countries, including Bangladesh. Despite regional differences in chronic undernutrition in Bangladesh, regional determinants among children under the age of five were not extensively explored. Data and methods U...
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Abstract Background Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) practices may affect the growth and nutritional status among adolescents. Therefore, this paper assesses WASH practices and its association with nutritional status among adolescent girls. Methods As a part of an intervention programme, this study is based on baseline cross-sectional data. It...