Vanya Mehta - Report Published

Vanya Mehta is a freelance journalist with articles published in The New York Times , BBC India, The Caravan magazine, and TwoCircles.net . Prior to becoming a journalist, she obtained a diploma in Comparative Studies of Middle East and Asia from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C in May, 2013. Her coursework included material on Indian and Chinese political economy. She also has worked as a crime reporter in Washington D.C. and interned at a civil rights law firm specialising in cases of police misconduct in New York City.

Research :

As a public policy scholar at The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, Vanya will be researching the status and implementation of employment and education schemes for Scheduled Castes (Dalits) in Telangana. This research will include analysis of the pre- and post-bifurcation schemes for Scheduled Castes such as the Andhra Pradesh government’s Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Sub Plan. Her interests are in understanding whether the strength of the Dalit movement in Andhra Pradesh has translated into successful government schemes for uplifting the socioeconomic status of the 58 different Scheduled Castes. The research will investigate how caste plays a role in the State formation of Telangana and whether a new State has the potential to decentralise the dominant castes’ control over resources and capital.

Read Policy Report No. 9 here:Caste, Urban Spaces and the State: Dalits in Telangana.