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Social Identity

The complexity of female empowerment interventions

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The distributional consequences of political reservations

This article identifies and attempts to fill in the gaps in understanding the effects of reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs) in Panchayats. Using data from a state-wide census, multiple administra...

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Caste-based differences in self-help groups: Evidence from a rural livelihood programme

The National Rural Livelihood Mission aims to increase income and improve wellbeing for rural households. Using survey data from nine states in India, this article analyses the existence of caste-base...

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India’s Women’s Reservation Act: A big win for governance and beyond

Amidst debates about the recently passed women's reservation act and whether it will reduce gender disparities on the ground, Wattal and Gopalan summarise evidence from a number of randomised evaluati...

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Whose education matters? An analysis of inter-caste marriages in India

The rate of inter-caste marriages in India was as low as 5.82% in 2011 and there has been no upward trend over the past four decades. This article examines the relationship between inter-caste marriag...

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Perceived risk of street harassment and college choice of women in Delhi

In New Delhi, 95% of women aged 16-49 report feeling unsafe in public spaces. This article shows that in order to feel safer, women in the capital city choose lower quality colleges, travel for a long...

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Women’s inheritance rights and son preference in India

An important driver of India’s unnaturally male-biased population sex ratio is the desire among Indian parents to have sons. This article investigates the extent to which this desire is driven by th...

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Political reservations for women and policy influence of low-castes in India

Many policies are designed along a particular identity dimension, such as gender or ethnicity. However, such policies overlook the fact that individuals are associated with several identity dimensions...

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Are Indian girls more educated than their mothers?

While intergenerational educational mobility of father-son pairs in India has been documented to some extent, there is negligible analysis on how daughters compare to their mothers in terms of educati...

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Do property rights exacerbate son preference?

While land reform has been shown to have benefits like increased agricultural productivity and access to credit, not much attention has been devoted to investigating its impact on gender inequality wi...

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When electoral quotas reduce caste-based discrimination

While affirmative action policies are widely used to tackle the underrepresentation of certain groups, their efficiency is fiercely debated. This article uses novel data from India to explore how quot...

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How women’s age at marriage impacts domestic violence

Domestic violence affects one in three women in their lifetime worldwide, and has serious adverse health and economic consequences. Analysing data from the latest National Family Health Survey of Indi...

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Social identity and perceived income adequacy

Perceptions about income adequacy, in addition to actual income adequacy, are a critical part of individual well-being. However, factors that determine these perceptions have not been well-investigate...

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Unity in cricket: Integrated leagues and caste divisions

A growing body of evidence supports the idea that intergroup contact can reduce discrimination. However, different types of contact – collaborative or adversarial – may have different effects. Bas...

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What happens when investments targeting women’s microbusinesses go to men?

Several studies find that male-operated – but not female-operated – microenterprises benefit from access to grants or loans. Applying the lens of household-level rather than individual-level inves...

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Religion and abortion: The role of politician identity

Debates surrounding abortion invoke both religion and politics. This column examines whether the religious identity of legislators influences abortion rates in the districts in which they are elected,...

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Nikita Mujumdar

Deputy Managing Editor, I4I

Anamika

Anamika Priyadarshini

Centre for Catalyzing Change (C3)

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Madhu Joshi

Centre for Catalyzing Change (C3)

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Shubha Bhattacharya

Centre for Catalyzing Change (C3)

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Arnab Mukherji

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

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Hema Swaminathan

Asian Development Bank & Indian Institute of Manag

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Pragya Bhuwania

University of California, Los Angeles

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Nalini Gulati

Editorial Advisor, I4I

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Most Popular Social Identity Posts

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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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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