Understanding school attendance: The missing link in “Schooling for All” Manjistha Banerji Kopal Mathur

India is close to its goal of achieving 100 % school enrolment for children in the age group of 5–16 years. However, this does not correspond with universal school attendance. Not all children who are enrolled attend school regularly. Enrolment is, at best only “nominal”...   Read More

Lack of access to clean fuel and piped water and children’s educational outcomes in rural India. Sonalde Desai Pallavi Choudhuri

Investments in clean fuel and piped water are often recommended in developing countries on health grounds. This paper examines an alternative channel, the relationship between piped water and access to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and children’s educational outcomes. Results based on the second round of...   Read More

Precarity in a Time of Uncertainty: Gendered Employment Patterns during the Covid-19 Lockdown in India Sonalde Desai Santanu Pramanik Neerad Deshmukh

India implemented one of the world’s most stringent lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 crisis. This study examines whether the impacts of the lockdown on employment differed by gender in areas surrounding Delhi. An ongoing monthly employment survey between March 2019 and May 2020 allows...   Read More

Does ‘Love’ make a difference? Marriage choice and post-marriage decision-making power Manjistha Banerji Ashwini S. Deshpande

Women's limited intra-household decision-making power has several dimensions: geographic, cultural, economic, and demographic. The dimension we focus on in this paper relates to women's transition into marriage. Marriages in India are near universal and age at marriage is low implying that nearly all women spend...   Read More

Economic Status and Adult Mortality in India: Is the Relationship Sensitive to Choice of Indicators? Debasis Barik Sonalde Desai Reeve Vanneman

Research on economic status and adult mortality is often stymied by the reciprocity of this relationship and lack of clarity on which aspect of economic status matters. While financial resources increase access to healthcare and nutrition and reduce mortality, sickness also reduces labor force participation, thereby...   Read More