Research Associate

Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) is a movement to empower women working in the informal economy. SEWA Bharat is part of the national SEWA movement. Established in 1984, it is a national federation of SEWA organisations of women working in the informal economy. SEWA Bharat emerged out of the need to address the SEWA movement’s challenges with geographical expansion and coordination. SEWA Bharat comprises a family of SEWA organisations to further informal women workers’ rights, livelihoods, financial independence, education, health and social security.

The ideal candidate will have an interest and skills in conducting research and statistical analysis (descriptive and inferential), can fit into a dynamic and diverse organisational environment, can adapt to iterative and evolving project requirements, have a self-starting attitude, and be able to plan, prioritise, and execute tasks with minimal supervision.

The research that will focus on the selected candidate’s work is a multi-year, mixed-methods research project on informal women workers across West Bengal and Jharkhand, and periodically undertakes research work at the National level, in collaboration with the Learning Hub. The research involves a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the situation of informal women workers across the state. Additional tasks will relate to other research projects as needed.

• Designing, overseeing, and participating in pilots, field monitoring and enumerator training as and when required. Supporting implementation with internal and external teams.
• Planning, supervising, and conducting data cleaning and analysis of large-scale quantitative data with the team. The candidate should be well-versed with descriptive and inferential statistical analysis methods. Understanding qualitative data analysis will also be an advantage.
• Drafting and contributing to reports, policy briefs, papers, articles and presentations, including creating appropriate visualisations for data presentation.
• Developing and testing survey instruments and research training protocols.
• Developing project timelines, budgets and operational plans.
• Extensive travel to various locations in support of these activities to nurture and develop a spirit of research and survey amongst the key state
  members.

• Post Graduation in Social Sciences, Economics, Statistics or any other discipline with training in quantitative research and research methods.
• Strong proficiency and experience in managing and conducting quantitative analysis.
• The preferred software is STATA.
• Work experience of 3 years or more would be preferred.
• Proficiency in M.S. Office (Excel, PowerPoint and Word).
• Proven ability to work in large teams and manage multiple tasks efficiently.
• Strong communication skills in English, Hindi and Bengali (written and oral) will be critical.
• Willingness to travel, commute and work in rural West Bengal and Jharkhand.
• Experience in mixed-method research is preferred but not mandatory.

Base location – West Bengal – Kolkata, along with travel to various districts across West Bengal and Jharkhand and other locations as per the requirement of the Federation Office.

Rs 55,000-60,000/- monthly, negotiable based on relevant experience.

This role requires frequent travel and we encourage female candidates to apply for the post.

Please send your resume with a cover letter to jobs@sewabharat.org, with the subject line – ‘Application For Research Associate – West Bengal’, expressing your interest and sharing relevant research experience.

Due to the high volume of applications received, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for the interview round.