Younus is a Ph.D. student in anthropology at the University of British Columbia and a recipient of the Public Scholars Initiative. His research is inscribed in the subfield of medical anthropology with a focus on development in public health interventions. His doctoral project seeks to explore the absence of caste in India’s sanitation intervention program, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India Mission, and the impact this absence continues to have on marginalized communities in the slums of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His doctoral project is supervised by Dr. Vinay Kamat, and his supervisory committee includes Dr. Sara Shneiderman and Dr. Priti Narayan.
Younus has a master’s degree in sociology and anthropology from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Loyola College, India. In the academic year 2021/2022, he was an Institute for Asian Research (IAR) fellow at the Centre for India and South Asia Research (CISAR).
Younus’ Liu Scholars project will explore the coloniality in global health practices vis-à-vis Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Dr. Veena Sriram will be his mentor on this project.
Research Interest: Caste, development, infrastructure, public health, sanitation, slum, social justice, toilets, and urban India.
Email: younus06@student.ubc.ca