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Social Identity

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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A road map for closing gender gaps in Bihar: Gender Responsive Budgeting

The state of Bihar was one of the early starters on Gender Responsive Budgeting in India, having published its first ‘Gender Budget Statement’ in 2008-09. Based on a review of the literature on th...

  • Perspectives

A permanent cordon-sanitaire: Dalits and Muslims in urban India

Near-perfect segregation and hierarchical ordering of residential space, based on caste or religious identity, is a well-known feature of rural India. Studies have also documented the persistence of s...

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Does the gender of your co-worker matter? Evidence from call centres

Several theories suggest that gender integration in the workplace may have negative effects in gender-segregated societies. Based on an experiment conducted with 765 employees in call centres located ...

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Nakusha: Son preference, ‘unwanted’ girls, and gender gaps in schooling

Indian society is commonly associated with a strong cultural preference for sons. Using nationally representative data from 1986-2017, this article examines parental investment in the education of son...

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Atrocities, murders, and untouchability: Measuring caste-based discrimination

How can we best measure inter-caste tension and discrimination in India? In this post, Victoire Girard highlights the limitations of using statistics compiled under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, w...

  • Perspectives

Covid-19: ‘Shadow pandemic’ and violence against women

Violence against women is a problem worldwide, with economic costs ranging from 1% to 4% of global GDP. This article investigates if the magnitudes and types of violence against women have changed dur...

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Demographic shocks and female labour force participation: Evidence from 1918 flu pandemic

The Influenza pandemic of 1918 killed about 5% of India’s population. This article finds that districts most adversely affected by influenza mortality saw a temporary increase in the country’s fem...

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How mothers-in-law influence women’s social networks and reproductive health

Restrictive social norms and strategic constraints imposed by family members can limit women’s access to and benefit from social networks. Based on a survey in rural Uttar Pradesh, this article show...

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Does caste identity still matter for occupational choice?

In today’s India, to what extent do people avoid jobs solely due to their sense of caste identity? This article discusses an experiment in rural Odisha that involves offering one-day jobs to workers...

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Son preference, maternal health, and women’s survival: A cross-cultural analysis

Lifetime risk of maternal death in developing countries is 33 times higher as compared to the developed world. This article examines the role of cultural norms in influencing maternal morbidity and mo...

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IGC Panel Discussion on gender and education: From policy to practice

The International Growth Centre, in collaboration with the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), the Gender Resource Centre (GRC), the Women Development Corporation of the Government of Bihar, ...

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Prejudice in a pandemic: Covid rumours and factory labour supply

Since the Tablighi Jamaat event – an Islamic congregation held in Delhi in mid-March – led to a large cluster of Covid cases, malicious rumours about Muslims spreading the disease started circulat...

  • Notes from the Field

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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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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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