Dr Pallikadavath is a health demographer. He holds a PhD degree in Demography from the Australian National University, Canberra. He has over 20 years of research and training experience in the field of population and health. His research interests include international health, fertility; mortality; migration, maternal and child health; reproductive health; life style and modern health diseases; HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases; and substance misuse among adults, children and young people. He has the experience of demographic analysis of large scale data sets, and qualitative & qualitative data analysis. He has published extensively in international journals and worked in prestigious research panels including the National Institute of Health, USA. He is a recipient of a British Academy research grant on low fertility in South India. He also holds research projects supported by the ESRC and Local Governments.