In December of 2023, Dr. Therese Boje Mortensen successfully defended her dissertation NGOs as Child Rights Implementers in India at Lund University. Making the decision to focus her PhD thesis on India and human rights came naturally to her, as she had previous experience from both fields. She had also traveled the South Asia region and studied Hindi at university.
“I have always been interested in learning languages and wanted to do fieldwork in a region where Hindi is spoken”, Therese Boje Mortensen says.
She describes the life of a doctoral student as exciting; an opportunity to independently plan the years ahead and being your own boss. The purpose of her PhD was to explore the role of non-governmental organisations as “duty bearers” of human rights and challenge the idea of the state as the only important actor in the process.
“In theory, providing human rights is a responsibility of the state. But if you look closer, the state can have different roles. I wanted to specifically examine the role of NGOs.”
While earlier studies had delved into the topic of 'duty bearing' of human rights, this had mostly been done within the fields of international law and philosophy. The focus had mainly been theoretical. In relation to this, Therese Boje Mortensen wanted to apply and contribute with a more empirical approach.
In 2019, she embarked on her first fieldwork trip, travelling to a small Indian city in Madhya Pradesh. Her case study was Childline, India’s national child helpline and a hybrid organization that is financed by the central government, managed by a foundation and implemented by small NGOs.
“I worked at Childline six days a week in exchange for the opportunity to interview the NGO workers”, Therese Boje Mortensen explains.
While the duties at Childline kept her busy and the free time was scarce, she acknowledges the importance of actually travelling to India and working in the field. In addition to her ability to speak Hindi.
“You can read all you want about how things work, but it is always different when you visit in real life. Given that the majority of people did not speak English, knowing Hindi was crucial for my fieldwork”, Therese Boje Mortensen says.
