Natasha D’cruze is a Research Associate with the Household Finance Research Initiative at Dvara Research, where she is involved in a project aimed at developing a holistic measurement for financial inclusion among low-income households. She also contributes to a project that seeks to broaden the understanding of poverty beyond an inability to meet basic needs and towards a comprehensive understanding based on the household’s cashflow.

Natasha holds a master’s degree in development economics from SOAS, University of London, as well as a bachelor’s degree in economics from Delhi University.

In the past, she has worked as an action researcher on the digital and Aadhaar-based delivery mechanisms of social welfare schemes in Jharkhand, where she did field research and collaborated with civil society organisations and village communities to help advocate for better local accountability. Natasha has worked on the ground to study the PMJAY in Jharkhand and has explored topics in evaluating development through the capability approach lens during her engagement with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).