Rajesh Kumar Rai
Master of Arts (M.A.), Geography, University of Allahabad
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), University of Allahabad
- Award:Travel AwardAwarding Organization:Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and BkkbN, IndonesiaDate Awarded:November 15, 2015
- Award:Travel AwardAwarding Organization:International Union for the Scientific Study of PopulationDate Awarded:April 17, 2013
- Award:Young Scientist Best Research Paper AwardAwarding Organization:Indian Association for Social Science and Health (IASSH)Date Awarded:March 7, 2010

My contribution to family planning research focuses on determinants of “intention” of contraceptive use in developing countries. My several published research papers on this issue have empirically demonstrated that intervention to alter “intention” for contraceptive use could increase coverage of family planning uptake, which in turn can improve reproductive maternal newborn and child health (RMNCH) indicators. My research findings were applauded by researchers and I was invited to various international conferences to share my research to global audiences. Currently, I lead a team of 60 researchers that is actively surveying rural communities in India to understand the public health needs of marginalized households to recommend state policy that affects several aspects of family planning.
My passion for family planning was sown through my experiences growing up in a village in northern India, where I saw large families struggling to meet their day-to-day needs, often taking the greatest toll on women and young girls. I put this passion into my training in Demography and Public Health, which not only cultivated my research and analytical skills, but taught me how contraceptive access and family planning knowledge could transform not just families, but communities and countries.
My family planning research has been recognized in several national and international fora, including being awarded the “Young Scientist Best Research Paper Award” by IASSH in 2010. At the Society for Health and Demographic Surveillance, I have led multiple research initiatives to inform family planning agenda for the West Bengal State Department of Health and Family Welfare. I have over 100 research publications on global health (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Rajesh+Kumar+Rai).
If I win, this platform will help me connect to a global community of family planning researchers and policy makers with an interest and expertise to design an intervention to improve family planning uptake in developing countries. With their help, I will invest my prize money to run an intervention in India to examine how current behavior of contraceptive use predicts future contraceptive use pattern.



- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-biosocial-science/article/do-...
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1877575617301829
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10389-015-0678-3
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1877575613000165
- https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)32278-5/fullt...