Dr. Sangeetha Madhavan has been awarded a Semester Graduate School Research and Scholarship Award for AY 2016-17 for her research  on “Kinship Support for Mothers and Children in Low Income Urban Communities in sub-Saharan Africa.” Synopsis of her research project: It is now well established that the co-residential household is an insufficient measure of family structure and family support for mothers and children. The only available population-representative data come from the Demographic and Health Surveys which are cross-sectional, limited to co-residential household structures, and reflect only current status conditions. Analysis based on such data results in a limited and incomplete understanding of familial influences on children’s well-being. Moreover, it can also lead to erroneous conclusions about the strength of family support at a time when economic forces and secular changes may be working against kin based support mechanisms. Policy decisions based on such findings could have serious consequences for mothers and their children.