N. Nakkeeran

Biography

N. Nakkeeran is currently working with Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar as Associate Professor. He has masters in Anthropology from Madras University and MPhil & PhD from Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU. His doctoral research was on aspects of ‘family formation and fertility change’ based on an ethnographic study of a south Indian village. An extract of this was published as “Conditions of Women's Work, Status and Fertility: Land, Caste and Gender in a South Indian Village” in EPW (Abstract) He was earlier with Department of Health Services Studies & Centre for Research Methodology at TISS, Mumbai and a consultant for UNICEF, Mumbai. His academic interests are in health social sciences, social determinants of health inequity, health sector reforms, women’s work, child health and nutrition and qualitative research methodology. He teaches Social and Behavioural Sciences in Health (SBSH), Research Methodology, Health Sector Reforms, and Equity in & Access to Health. One of his anthropological research works undertaken for SEARCH Gadchiroli has been published as a book: “Transfer of Home-based Newborn Care from SEARCH to Other Organisations: Process Documentation of the ANKUR Project”, (SEARCH, 2007). His other papers in this theme include “Qualitative Research Methodology: Epistemological Foundation and Research Procedures” in IJSW, “Knowledge, Truth and Social Reality: An Introductory Note on Qualitative Research” in IJCM (Fulltext) “Rigour and validity in qualitative methods in applied situations” in IJPH (Fulltext), “Is Sampling a misnomer in qualitative research (communicated to Sociological Bulletin). His publications in the field of nutrition includes “Capacity of frontline ICDS functionaries to support caregivers on infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices in Gujarat, India” in APJCN (Fulltext) Nakkeeran along with colleagues, was instrumental in designing and rolling out “Certificate Program in Research Methodology”, a distance learning program. He has been successfully organising short term trainings on use of qualitative research methods and analysis of qualitative data using Atlas-ti at IIPHG. He has supported over thirty research methodology workshops organised for research scholars, faculty members, development professionals in different universities, academic staff college and research institutes as the key-resource person. Nakkeeran has undertaken a number of projects funded by Shastri-Indo-Canadian Institute, SNL-SEARCH, WHO, UNICEF (Delhi, Mumbai & Gandhinagar), ICMR, GSACS, GOI, Govt. Maharashtra, Govt. of Gujarat, TISS, WB, Institute of Human Development, Save the Children (India), Wellcome Trust-PHFI Grant, and Global Alliance in Improved Nutrition. He offers consultancy services in qualitative research training, designing and implementing qualitative studies and in analysing qualitative data. IPSOS, ANSWERS-Hyderabad, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Public Health Resource Network are select few Institutes where he has offered such services.

Research Interest

His research interests are in health social sciences, social determinants of health inequity, health sector reforms, women’s work, child health and nutrition and qualitative research methodology. He teaches Social and Behavioural Sciences in Health (SBSH), Research Methodology, Health Sector Reforms, and Equity in & Access to Health.