dr. nirvana pillay

Nirvana Pillay is an independent consultant and researcher in public health and development and a visiting researcher at the Wits School of Public Health. Her focus is on research, communication and capacity development, with research interests in the health and wellbeing of young people, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights, maternal and child health, and the health of farm workers. She completed her PhD in Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand (2019). Her doctoral study was based in Alexandra, Johannesburg, and draws on medical anthropology, sociology and public health to explore issues of agency and decision-making for young mothers aged 18 to 20. Her dissertation interrogates how discourses of early motherhood mediate young women’s experiences following an early, unplanned pregnancy, and elaborates on how young mothers navigate their social and structural contexts