Radhika Iyengar’s research while affiliated with Columbia University and other places

Prior to embarking on this special issue, we had begun working on our own technical and vocational education and training (TVET) research project studying women’s upskilling in India. The Indian government demarcated women’s upskilling as an important initiative in their 12th five-year plan (an economic plan strategizing development and growth), which particularly remarked about the criticality of improving access while also notating the challenges and equity points that need to be worked on including economic empowerment and engagement in governance (Planning Commission, 2013). We then realized there was a need for studies on the ground to gauge whether this endeavor/initiative was desired and to begin working on policy development from the bottom up to connect with the Plan’s overall goals. Hence, through our participatory action research work at an upskilling program, we studied women’s access to and interest in participating in TVET programs because we wanted to know how and if they desired to engage in these programs (Iyengar & Witenstein, 2019; Witenstein & Iyengar, 2021).