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Human Development

ASER 2024: More than a post-pandemic recovery in learning

  • Perspectives

Pedalling towards gender equality and empowerment

In Bihar, India and in rural Zambia, the government introduced programmes to address gender gaps in education by providing adolescent girls with bicycles for their commute to school. Discussing the im...

  • Articles

Does electrification illuminate women's lives?

A key reason for women’s low labour force participation in developing countries is the burden of unpaid domestic work. Analysing data from rural Bangladesh, this article assesses whether electrifica...

  • Articles

The wide-ranging benefits of India’s Public Distribution System

India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) is the world’s largest food transfer programme and India’s most far-reaching social safety net, accounting for 60% of the country’s social assistance b...

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Lighting the path to learning: Can electricity boost children’s test scores?

When households gain access to electricity, children are more likely to be enrolled in school. But do they also perform better? Based on West Bengal’s universal household electrification programme a...

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Reflections on how the New Education Policy plays out in the classroom

The National Education Policy, 2020 emphasises the acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy by Standard 2. Yet, little is known about how the related initiatives have translated into changes ...

  • Notes from the Field

The unintended effect of alcohol prohibition on adolescents’ mental health

Alcohol consumption is typically initiated during adolescence, with long-lasting implications on adult health, economic stability, and well-being. Analysing Bihar’s alcohol ban, this article finds a...

  • Articles

How police patrols reduced severe street harassment in India

Street harassment is a pervasive issue, with negative impacts on women’s safety and mobility in urban public spaces. Based on an experiment conducted in collaboration with the Hyderabad City Police,...

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ASER 2024: More than a post-pandemic recovery in learning

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 reports on children’s schooling status and reading and arithmetic levels from almost all rural districts of India. In this post, Wilima Wadhwa, Dire...

  • Perspectives

Pedalling towards gender equality and empowerment

In Bihar, India and in rural Zambia, the government introduced programmes to address gender gaps in education by providing adolescent girls with bicycles for their commute to school. Discussing the im...

  • Articles

Does electrification illuminate women's lives?

A key reason for women’s low labour force participation in developing countries is the burden of unpaid domestic work. Analysing data from rural Bangladesh, this article assesses whether electrifica...

  • Articles

Enhancing foundational learning through parent-teacher collaboration

Despite advancements in primary school enrolment, over 50% of pupils in rural India fail to achieve core literacy, while 44% lack numeracy skills at the end of grade 5. Based on a randomised experimen...

  • Articles

The wide-ranging benefits of India’s Public Distribution System

India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) is the world’s largest food transfer programme and India’s most far-reaching social safety net, accounting for 60% of the country’s social assistance b...

  • Articles

Network membership and demand for health insurance

Despite being free and having liberal eligibility criteria, the adoption of public health insurance in India remains low. This article examines how informal networks influence adoption behaviour, in t...

  • Articles

Powering progress: How reliable community electrification boosts women’s autonomy

While there has been significant progress in expanding access to grid electricity in India, the reliability of electricity remains a concern. Based on five national-level datasets spanning over a peri...

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Empowering daughters: How conditional cash transfers can shift cultural norms

During the last 30 years, Indian governments have implemented over 20 programmes that reward parents who have daughters and invest in them after birth. Yet, very little is known about these programmes...

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Recent Contributors

Somdeep

Somdeep Chatterjee

Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Shiv

Shiv Hastawala

State University of New York at Binghamton

Jai

Jai Kamal

Indian Institute of Management Jammu

Suman

Suman Bhattacharjea

ASER Centre

Shweta

Shweta Bhutada

ASER Centre

Akanksha

Akanksha Bisht

ASER centre

Rashmi

Rashmi Barua

Jawaharlal Nehru University

Khushboo

Khushboo Aggarwal

Institute of Economic Growth

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Most Popular Human Development Posts

Hindu-Muslim fertility differentials in India: District-level estimates from Census 2011

The 2011 Indian Census data show a higher growth rate of Muslim population compared to the Hindu population. This article provides an in-depth picture of Hindu-Muslim fertility differentials at the di...

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Understanding India’s mental health crisis

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, several reports have indicated a worsening of mental health issues among individuals across age groups. In this post, Michele Mary Bernadine examines the stat...

  • Perspectives

Ten steps to transform the quality of education in India

In this article, Sridhar Rajagopalan, Managing Director of Educational Initiatives, suggests 10 initiatives that can help transform the quality of education in India.

  • Perspectives