Professor Ajailiu Niumai from Tamei, Tamenglong district, Manipur, is among the few “outstanding and distinguished alumni of Miranda House, Delhi University'', who were felicitated on March 8 on International Women’s Day, 2024 and the 76th Foundation Day of the college in New Delhi.
Other distinguished awardees included Prof. Kiran Datar (former VC of Delhi University & former Principal of Miranda House), Surya Rekha (Hindustani Light Classical singer), Rashmi Vajpeyi (Natarang Pratisthan), Dr. Ila Singh (Deputy Comptroller & Auditor General), Dr. Madhu Purnima Kishwar (founder editor of Manushi - India’s first feminist journal), Dikshya Routray (Film Director, creative producer, & writer), Priti Agrawal (Indian Postal Service), Dr. Sujata Roy Abhijat (Philosophy Department, Delhi University), and many other distinguished women alumni.
Ajailiu Niumai is professor of sociology and former Head, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion & Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP), School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad (UoH) & Senior Research Associate, Department of Sociology, University of Johannesburg, South Africa (2023-25). She is the Assistant Director, Institute of Eminence (IoE), University of Hyderabad (2023-25).
She has held several positions in her career of 24 years and has been associated with many universities in India and overseas. She is the Supervisory Panel Member of Ph.D Candidate at the Humanitarian Health Research Initiative, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, College of Health & Medicine, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (2023 onwards). Her post-doctoral studies at the Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies, University of Iowa, USA in 2013-14 under UGC Raman Fellowship was a part of the INDO-US Knowledge Initiative.
She is the First Fellow of CARTHA (NGO) in Iowa city, USA (2006). She is on the Board of Governors at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru, Executive Council Member of the Central Tribal University of Andhra Pradesh and Advisory Committee Member/Board of Studies Member in various Universities.
She has served Sociological Associations at the Regional, National and International levels in various capacities. She is the Asia Regional Representative of RC-32 Women, Gender and Society of International Sociological Society (2023-27). She is Member, Managing Committee of Indian Sociological Society (2020-2025) and former Convenor of RC-04 Migration & Diaspora Studies (2026-19) of Indian Sociological Society. She is the founder Secretary of North East India Sociological Association (2022 onwards).
She joined the Department of Sociology as Assistant Professor, UoH in 2000, and worked till 2009. She joined CSSEIP, UoH in 2009 and taught courses at Centre for Women’s Studies as one of the pioneers and joint faculty, UoH (2007-2013). She completed her B.A (Honours) Sociology from Miranda House, Delhi University in 1995. She is the very first Liangmai Naga tribal woman to be awarded Ph.D degree in Sociology from JNU (2008) and the first tribal woman to be a Professor in the University of Hyderabad (2017).
She is a noted sociologist who has been working on Gender, Indian Diaspora, North East India studies, NGOs and development. Her ground-breaking research on human trafficking of the marginalised women and children in North East India and South India (with a special focus on combating trafficking, advocacy, influencing policy-makers, collaborating with NGOs, repatriation of the trafficked victims, including menstrual hygiene) has culminated in the introduction of an Elective Interdisciplinary Course (for M.A students) on “Human Trafficking in India” in UoH.
She will launch an E-Learning Course of the same in 2024.
Professor Ajailiu had the privilege of hosting the First National Symposium on Anti-Human Trafficking at UoH, sponsored by Andhra Pradesh Mahila Commission (2020).
She has published articles in reputed journals like Economic & Political Weekly, Indian Journal of Gender Studies (Sage), Sociological Bulletin (Sage), Contemporary Voice of Dalit (Sage), The Eastern Anthropologist, International Anthropological Journal - Man in India and the like.
She is a Guest Editor of the Special Volume on Gender and Social Exclusion, Journal of Social and Economic Development (2024), Springer Nature. Her books (with Prof. Abha Chauhan) includes Gender, Law and Social Transformation in India, Springer Nature, Germany/Singapore (2022), and (with Abha Chauhan & Tattwamasi Paltasingh) Hundreds Years of Sociology in India: Evolving Issues and Emerging Trends by Springer Nature, Germany/Singapore (2024).
