NCAER - NATIONAL DATA INNOVATION CENTRE
Sonalde Desai, Debasis Barik write: The demographic dividend is smaller, but will last longer due to regional variation in the onset of fertility decline. As southern states struggle with the growing burden of supporting the elderly, northern states will supply the workforce needed for growth.
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” for them. In this study, we examine the ‘demand’ and ‘supply’ side factors behind low attendance by drawing upon a new dataset on adolescents in India- Understanding Adults and Young Adolescents (UDAYA) for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Results indicate that girls and older students are more likely to be absent from school. Married girls were more likely to be absent than their unmarried peers. Engaging in unpaid work also deter children from attending school regularly, although surprisingly, there is no significant difference between children who are not working and children engaged in paid work in terms of absenteeism. Religion, affluence, and school type also have a significant influence on attendance. Surprisingly, absenteeism did not emerge to be significant when proficiency in math as a marker of academic performance is taken into consideration. Provisioning of infrastructure can be a particularly effective means towards increasing attendance, as can be the contribution of teachers when considered as positive role models.
First, unlike Americans, opting out of the workforce is not an option for most Indians. The existence of the vast informal sector offers refuge to employees pushed out of wage employment. Second, this employment of last resort should not be taken to imply a robust recovery.
Especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, women have exhibited higher levels of depression and anxiety than men across nations and social classes
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 the India Human Development Survey (2011–12) for rural India show that children aged 6–14 years, living in households that rely on free collection of water and cooking fuel, have lower mathematics scores and benefit from lower educational expenditures than children living in households that do not collect water and fuel. Moreover, gender inequality in this unpaid work burden also matters. In households where the burden of collection is disproportionately borne by women, child outcomes are significantly lower, particularly for boys. The endogeneity of choice to collect or purchase water and cooking fuel are modelled via Heckman selection and the entropy balancing method.
