GENDER TRANSFORMATION: Insights from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS)

To mark the occasion of Women’s History Month, NCAER hosted a webinar titled, “Gender Transformation: Insights from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS)”. During the webinar, researchers from the IHDS team discussed insights on gender transformations across the country, based on IHDS data emerging from surveying the lives of men and women in over 40,000 households, over the two decades between 2004 and 2024.

Moderated by Professor Sonalde Desai, the webinar, which had over 150 attendees, was also joined by NCAER’s Director General, Mr. Suresh Goyal. The presentations by IHDS researchers Dr Pallavi Choudhuri, Dr Debasis Barik, Dr Ruchi Jain, Dr Dibyasree Ganguly, and Dr Athira Vinod from NCAER and Dr Sharan Sharma from the University of Maryland, and the subsequent discussion focused on several topics of interest and key themes, including survey methodology, changing educational patterns, evolving family expectations, women’s mobility, and the continuing challenges of measuring work and empowerment.

The panel also highlighted practical challenges in interviewing women and emphasised the importance of recruiting and training women interviewers while addressing related barriers and strengthening field protocols to improve data quality.