Alaka Malwade Basu (born 1951) is an Indian sociologist and

demographer Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...

, a professor of development sociology at the

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

. Between 2002 and 2008, she was the director of the South Asia Program of Cornell University. She is a senior fellow for public health at the

United Nations Foundation The United Nations Foundation is a charitable organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., that supports the United Nations and its activities. It was established in 1998 with a $1billion gift to the United Nations by philanthropist Ted Turn ...

and a member of the editorial boards of the ''

Population and Development Review ''Population and Development Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Population Council. It was established in 1975 and the journal is co-edited by Raya Muttarak and Joshua Wilde. The jou ...

'' and the ''Asian Population Studies''. She is also a member of the Lancet-Guttmacher Commission on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Basu has extensive publications in the fields of social demography, gender and development, and South Asian Studies. She was formerly a professor at the

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU; ISO: Javāharalāla Neharū Viśvavidyālaya) is a public research university located in Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university ...

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

and at the

Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, and the chairperson of the scientific committee on anthropological demography at the

International Union for the Scientific Study of Population International Union for the Scientific Study of Population is an international union for the study of human population In world demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently alive. It was estimated by the Unite ...

(IUSSP) and member of committees on population projections and reproductive health at the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, United States. She has also served in the governing boards of the

Population Reference Bureau The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) is a private, nonprofit organization specializing in collecting and supplying statistics necessary for research and/or academic purposes focused on the environment, and health and structure of populations. The ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

and the

Population Association of America The Population Association of America (PAA) is a non-profit scientific professional association dedicated to the study of issues related to population and demography. The PAA was established by Henry Pratt Fairchild and Frederick Osborn, with fun ...

Personal life

Alaka Malwade Basu is married to the economist

Kaushik Basu Kaushik Basu (born 9 January 1952) is an Indian economist who was Chief Economist of the World Bank from 2012 to 2016 and Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India from 2009 to 2012. He is the C. Marks Professor of International Studie ...

. They have one son, Karna Basu, and one daughter, the writer and actor

Diksha Basu Diksha Basu is an American writer and actress. She is the author of the novel ''The Windfall'' which is under adaptation for a television series by Shonali Bose. Biography Diksha Basu was born in Delhi, to the sociologist Alaka Malwade Basu ...

Bibliography

Books

*''Culture, the Status of Women, and Demographic Behaviour: Illustrated with the Case of India''. (1992)

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. . *''Girls' Schooling, Women's Autonomy and Fertility Change in South Asia''. (eds. 1996; with Jeffery, Roger)

Sage Publications Sage Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent academic publishing company, founded in 1965 in New York City by Sara Miller McCune and now based in the Newbury Park neighborhood of Thousand Oaks, California. Sage ...

. . *''The Methods and Uses of Anthropological Demography''. (eds. 1998; with Aaby, Peter)

. . *''The Sociocultural and Political Aspects of Abortion: Global Perspectives''. (eds. 2000)

Greenwood Publishing Group Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG) was an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which was part of ABC-Clio. Since 2021, ABC-Clio and its suite of imprints, including GPG, are collectively imprints of ...

. .

Selected publications

* "Demography for the Public: Literary Representations of Population Research and Policy". (2004) ''

Development and Change ''Development and Change'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Institute of Social Studies. The journal was established in 1970 and covers development studies and social change. Specific topic ...

''. 45 (5): 813–837 . * "Hopes, dreams and anxieties: India's one-child families". (2006) '' Asian Population Studies''. 12 (1): 4–27. . . * "Zika, Sex and Reproductive Health". (2015) ''

Economic and Political Weekly The ''Economic and Political Weekly'' (EPW) is a weekly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all social sciences, and is published by the Sameeksha Trust. In January 2018, academic Gopal Guru was named the new Editor of the journal. Guru will be ...

''. 51 (9): 7–8.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Basu, Alaka Living people 1952 births Indian sociologists Indian demographers Academic staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University Cornell University faculty