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Is Language a bridge or barrier? Linguistic distance and the health of women and children

India is a linguistically diverse country with a large flow of internal migrants. This article demonstrates that the greater the “linguistic distance” between a woman’s native language and the d...

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Markets, marriage, and norms: Understanding female labour force participation in India

Despite recent gains in India’s female labour force participation rate due to rural self-employment, women’s work in the country remains constrained by factors on both the demand and supply side. ...

  • Perspectives

How dowry shapes migration decisions in modern India

While migration is a critical driver of economic development, it may disrupt arrangements wherein parents rely on sons for old-age support. Leveraging new survey data, this article shows that at the t...

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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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Female labour force participation: Measurement and data quality

Official data revealed a sharp decline in female labour force participation in India between 2004-05 and 2011-12, despite fast economic growth in the country. Examining the measurement of women’s wo...

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International Women’s Day 2025: Towards equality and empowerment

Throughout this week, I4I has been sharing some of the latest evidence and ideas around women’s empowerment to mark International Women’s Day 2025. Discover the five-part series, and more about I4...

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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...

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Can job ad language help explain the gender gap in the Indian labour market?

Women applying for jobs tend to earn a lot less than men of the same age and education qualifications. Understanding the factors contributing to this disparity is crucial for addressing gender inequal...

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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...

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Fighting gender inequality through mobility: Assessing Delhi’s ‘Pink Ticket’ scheme

To address gender inequities in mobility, Delhi launched a fare-free bus travel scheme for women in 2019. Based on a survey of female passengers in the city, Nishant and Archana highlight positive eff...

  • Notes from the Field

Mind matters: How destigmatisation drives help-seeking in Nepal

Common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression constitute a significant public health challenge, with stigma being a key barrier to seeking proper care. Based on a study in Nepal, the ar...

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Road to empowerment: Rural roads programme and women's outcomes

Lack of spatial mobility is recognised as a critical constraint on women's socioeconomic participation. This article presents findings from a study examining the impact of India’s rural roads progra...

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Economic development and crime against women

With economic development, technology becomes more skill-intensive than brawn-intensive, increasing the earning potential of women. Analysing Indian data from 2004-2012, this article shows that the de...

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Defensive cooperation: Understanding pro-social attitudes in Indian Muslims

Mainstream theories of development predict greater willingness to contribute to public goods in more homogeneous settings. This article reports findings from a study in Delhi slums to assess how Hindu...

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Reporting of gender-based violence: Why public activism and dialogue matter

The recent case of an on-duty female doctor being brutally raped and murdered in a Kolkata hospital, has sparked nation-wide protests and yet again raised serious questions and concerns around women...

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Shivangi Singhal

FLAME University

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Juhi Sidharth

FLAME University

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Chaitanya Ravi

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Anisha Sharma

Ashoka University

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Advaith Jayakumar

Columbia University

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Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi Centre

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University of California, San Diego

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University of California, Los Angeles

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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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