Sahab is one of the experts of the Policy Change Initiative; he is a researcher and an academician of the highest calibre. He is entirely into the fold of academics, obtained his first degree in law from Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avodh University, Faizabad in 2000. After that joined Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and completed a Masters in Geography with specialization in Applied Geography and Regional Planning in 2003. He enrolled for M.Phil. at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and submitted his research dissertation on the topic, “Socio-Economic Change among Scheduled Castes Population in India (1971-2001)” in 2008. He then went on to obtain a PhD degree in 2013 at Jawaharlal Nehru University on the topic, “Factors Influencing Access to Higher Education among Scheduled Castes in Uttar Pradesh”. His quest for academic research knew no bounds, he enrolled for a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Jawaharlal Nehru University and was awarded Post-Doctoral Fellow in 2018 on the topic, “Impact of Reservation on Access and Levels of Attainment in Higher Education among the Scheduled Castes”. He also received an MA in Economics, with specialization in Actuarial Economics and Financial Institution & Market from Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi in 2018.
He has organized and chaired sessions in various conferences in India and abroad. Some of them includes, “Gendered Rights: Space, Culture and Society” under the commission of ‘Gender and Geography, IGU’ during IGC 2016, Beijing, China; “Gendered Crime and Spaces: An approach in Feminist Geography” under the commission of ‘Gender and Geography, IGU’ during IGU 2015 Moscow, Russia; etc. He has published papers in many referred and peered reviewed journals like; ‘Women in Higher Education: A Spatial-Temporal Analysis of Higher Education from a Gender perspective in India Learning Community’; ‘Determinants of Higher Education for Scheduled Castes in Uttar Pradesh: A Socio-Economic Analysis Research’ Journal of Social Science & Management; etc. Apart from presenting and publishing papers he has participated in numerous training and workshops around the world. Some notable ones includes the workshop “Generating Research Impact: Ethics, Politics and Practices” organized in 2014 by RGS (IGB), London; the workshop “Ecosystem services concept in spatial planning” organized by Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University during IGU 2014 Krakow Poland and the workshop on “Using Life Cycle Assessment and a System Approach to Sustainability” organized by the CSRD, Jawaharlal Nehru University in collaboration with the Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme, School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, Oxford University, UK.
He is associated with many renowned organizations like he has a permanent membership at Commission of Gender and Geography, International Geographical Union (IGU), a member of Association of American Geographers (AAG), Washington, DC, USA and a Fellow of Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers), London, UK.
His area of interest includes the following research areas from inter-disciplinary to trans-disciplinary research focusing on a deprived section of the society in education, gender geography, and regional development, GIS, Remote Sensing and Social Sciences like caste atrocities, higher education, women’s right, marginalized group, and challenges of social issues in India.
His idea to give back to the society for the welfare of humanity and to push for a community-driven innovation and creativity validate PCI vision of a better life. His rich academic exposure and experience would enable the organization to achieve significant success. As an expert at Policy Change Initiative he shall be dealing with many thematic areas of his expertise; Climate Change & Environment, Education, and Social issues. He will be assisting us in the policy research ambitions and giving us a helping hand in making progress meaningful.