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Girls in tech: Evaluating IIT’s Supernumerary Seats Scheme

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What is behind the recent rise in women’s workforce participation?

Women’s workforce participation in India increased from 32% in 2022-23 to 37% in 2023-24, with the rise concentrated in rural areas. This article demonstrates that this significant change may be dri...

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Can conversations about minorities reduce discrimination? Evidence from anti-transgender discrimination in Chennai

Discriminatory behaviour is known to adversely impact equity and efficiency in a range of economic and social domains. In the context of discrimination against transgender people in urban Chennai, thi...

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How class and caste influence school choice

Families' socioeconomic status impacts how parents make decisions regarding their children's education. Taking into account the interplay of caste and class, this paper finds that when families are to...

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Introduction to e-Symposium: Urbanisation, gender, and social change in north India

Urbanisation in India is reshaping established social and economic patterns of behaviour, in ways that scholars are yet to fully comprehend. India’s rapid urbanisation invites several pressing quest...

  • Symposium

Empowering women through participatory theatre

Twenty-nine percent of women in India report having suffered intimate-partner violence. Based on a field study involving 92 villages in the state of West Bengal, this article shows that community-base...

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Inter-gender and intra-gender gaps in land ownership in India

While women’s landownership is recognised as a key indicator of their economic empowerment, there are no detailed estimates of how many and which women own land in India. Analysing longitudinal data...

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Do promises work? Assessing long-term benefits of ‘Apni Beti Apna Dhan’ programme

During 1994-1998, the state government of Haryana ran a conditional cash transfer programme to address the issue of child marriage: at the time of a daughter’s birth, parents from marginalised secti...

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Is OBC reservation good for development?

The affirmative action debate has always been riddled by the question of merit versus social justice, and discussions around having a caste census have once again reignited the controversy around rese...

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Does access liberalise gender norms around phone use for rural women?

Despite improved connectivity, deep-rooted gender norms continue to shape access to and use of mobile technologies by women in India. This note discusses preliminary findings from a study, which sugge...

  • Notes from the Field

Measuring caste inequality across Indian states

Although recent research on inequality shows that upper castes have the highest levels of material well-being, there is a wide variation in caste inequality across India. Measuring three forms of cast...

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Do quotas in public sector employment for disadvantaged groups enhance their welfare?

Affirmative action policies remain controversial with many arguing that benefits come at the expense of those excluded, and accrue disproportionately to the elite in disadvantaged groups. Analysing na...

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Is it safe? Threat of sexual violence and women’s decision to work

Despite significant improvements in women's educational attainment and reduced fertility rates, India’s female labour force participation (FLFP) remains among the lowest globally. Using nationally r...

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Countering violence against women with awareness creation and self-defence training

The 2019 National Crime Records Bureau report shows a 7.3% increase, compared to 2018, in violence against women, with one in three women being subject to physical, emotional, or sexual violence. In t...

  • Perspectives

The escalating financial burden of child births

Data from the 2019-20 National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 show that in several states, the proportion of institutional deliveries remain below the national average, with high out-of-pocket expendit...

  • Perspectives

Evolution of dowry in rural India: Evidence from 1960-2008

Despite being illegal since 1961, dowry continues to be a widespread phenomenon in rural India. In the first of a two-part series, this article tracks the evolution of dowry during 1960-2008 across st...

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Recent Contributors

Nandana

Nandana Sengupta

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Swati

Swati Sharma

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Priyanshi

Priyanshi Chaudhary

O.P. Jindal Global University

Avanindra Nath

Avanindra Nath Thakur

O.P. Jindal Global University

Karan

Karan Bhasin

University at Albany, SUNY

Surjit

Surjit Bhalla

International Monetary Fund

Tirthatanmoy

Tirthatanmoy Das

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

I4I

I4I Team

Ideas for India

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Most Popular Social Identity Posts

Hindu-Muslim fertility differentials in India: An update

Building on past research, Saswata Ghosh and Pallabi Das estimate the state- and district-level fertility differentials between Hindus and Muslims using data from the latest round of the NFHS. They sh...

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A division of labourers: Caste identity and efficiency in India

Castes in India are closely associated with certain occupations and determine the jobs done by millions. This study uses a new dataset to show that a large proportion of workers still work in their ca...

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Sex ratios and religion in India and South Asia

In South Asia, low child sex ratios are increasingly an isolated Indian phenomenon. Within India, child sex ratios are ‘normal’ among Christians and Muslims but much lower among Hindus, Sikhs, and...

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