Debadayita Raha

Debadayita Raha is an environmental social scientist at the University of Derby. Having graduated with a PhD in International Development from the University of Reading, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, her core interest lies in policy implementation and the impact of changing environment on people’s lives. Her PhD critically analysed ‘Gender and Rural Development Policy Dynamics’ of projects implemented via Public Private Partnerships in Rajasthan and Orissa. She was part of a multi-pound research project funded by EPSRC (UK) and the Department of Science and Technology (India) with 15 institutions across the UK and India working on Rural Hybrid Energy Enterprise Systems. Her role in the large project was to undertake whole systems analysis of rural poverty and energy needs in the UK and India. She studies the social intersectionality and interconnectedness with changing environment and natural resources management (and mismanagement). As an ethnographic and qualitative researcher, she also studies policy discourse and the gap in the implementation process in the local context.

Overcoming socio-cultural resistance towards biogas technology
Cultural taboos are often described as an insurmountable barrier to adoption of domestic toilet-linked anaerobic digesters (TLADs). This study provides a better understanding of the socio-cultural resistance towards TLADs through findings from interviews with households in Assam, and demonstrates that this resistance can be negotiable in certain circumstances. It highlights various pathways to adoption of TLADs and suggests ways in which the implementation of the national biogas programmes could become more effective.
