21 May, 2025What 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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Priyanshi Chaudhary Avanindra Nath Thakur 
13 May, 2025
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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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Duncan Webb
- 19 July, 2024
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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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How dowry influences household decisions in rural India
It is widely believed that Indian parents start saving for dowry as soon as a daughter is born. In the second of a two-part series on dowry in rural India, this article examines how dowry influences h...
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S Anukriti Sungoh Kwon Nishith Prakash
- 01 July, 2021
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India’s ‘missing girls’: Women’s education and declining child sex-ratios
Although women’s education has been proposed as a solution to the persistent issue of ‘missing girls’ in India, studies have reached contradictory conclusions on the impact of female education o...
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Pradeep Chhibber Francesca R. Jensenius Susan L Ostermann
- 30 June, 2021
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Lineage norms and women’s political participation
While reservation for local political representation of women has made major headway, this has not addressed the structural problems that prevent the full incorporation of women into politics. Based ...
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Rachel Brulé Nikhar Gaikwad
- 23 June, 2021
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Reducing intimate partner violence: Laying the groundwork with young males
Two out of five ever-married women in Bihar have experienced marital violence. Based on a study of ‘Do Kadam Barabari Ke Ore’ – a programme imparting gender-transformative life skills to young ...
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K.G. Santhya A.J. Francis Zavier
- 02 June, 2021
- Notes from the Field
Fruits of liberation? Women’s work participation and adoption of household appliances
Does increase in women’s work participation lead to greater adoption of household appliances, or is it the other way round? To address this question, this article analyses US data from the Second Wo...
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Gautam Bose Tarun Jain Sarah Walker
- 28 May, 2021
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Does gender (still) determine destiny in India?
Emerging evidence of convergence in educational attainment between girls and boys seems at odds with a large body of research on gender-based discrimination against girls in India. In this context, th...
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M. Shahe Emran Hanchen Jiang Forhad Shilpi
- 21 May, 2021
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Sex workers, stigma, and self-image: Evidence from Kolkata’s brothels
Being poor or marginalised often brings stigma, which may distort a person’s self-image, inducing sub-optimal choices and resulting in a psychological poverty trap. Based on a study conducted in Kol...
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Sayantan Ghosal Smarajit Jana Anandi Mani Sandip Mitra Sanchari Roy
- 13 May, 2021
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Women and work: How much does measurement matter?
Female labour force participation in India has been on the decline – dropping from an already low 29% in 2004-05 to 17% in 2017-18. However, the extent of women’s economic participation depends o...
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Milan Vaishnav
- 10 May, 2021
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Women’s legal rights and gender gaps in property ownership
Amendments to succession laws have sought to address gender-based discrimination in property inheritance in India. Analysing Demographic and Health Survey data, collected in about 40 countries since 2...
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Isis Gaddis Rahul Lahoti Hema Swaminathan
- 23 April, 2021
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Dowries and women’s well-being post marriage
Dowries are transfers of wealth from the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Analysing nationally representative survey data from rural India, this article shows that do...
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Rossella Calvi Ajinkya Keskar
- 12 April, 2021
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Leaders and citizens: Women’s political participation in India
Women’s political participation has emerged as a key element of the discourse around the upcoming state elections in India. In this post, Nalini Gulati and Ella Spencer explore the evidence on vario...
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Nalini Gulati Ella Spencer
- 31 March, 2021
- Perspectives
Social identity, health networks, and health knowledge
Health knowledge, driven by education, is a critical factor for the achievement of good health outcomes. Analysing data from the Indian Human Development Survey 2004-05, this article examines how know...
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Niels-Hugo Blunch Nabanita Datta Gupta
- 17 March, 2021
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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...
- Pallabi Das Saswata Ghosh
- 18 April, 2023
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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...
- Guilhem Cassan Daniel Keniston Tatjana Kleineberg
- 18 November, 2022
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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...
- Swati Narayan
- 03 April, 2019
- Articles