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How dowry shapes migration decisions in modern India

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First to wake, last to eat: How India’s quest for gender parity begins on an unequal footing

Women are predominantly responsible for domestic work, the burden of which is typically heavier in the morning. Analysing data from India’s 2019 Time-Use Survey, this article shows that women tend ...

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Do judges favour defendants like themselves? Evidence from Indian courts

Around the world, research has shown that people in positions of power tend to favour those who share their social identity. To examine whether the same is true in Indian courts, this article analyses...

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Protecting girls at school: How sanitation infrastructure can reduce sexual violence

Over 30% of reported rape cases in India involve victims under 18, with girls particularly at risk. One key factor that exposes females to harm is the lack of adequate sanitation facilities. This arti...

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Prevalence and evolution of dowry in India

Dowry payments are an important part of household finances in India, typically exceeding a year of earnings. This article analyses data from an all-India sample of over 70,000 marriages to document fa...

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Traditional hierarchies and affirmative action in a globalising economy: Evidence from India

India has had a long-standing policy of affirmative action to address deep-rooted caste inequities and discrimination. This article compares successive age cohorts of three broad social groups – Sch...

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Women’s work and fertility: Evidence from 200 years, 103 countries

The declining rates of female labour force participation in developing countries in the last two decades have led researchers to focus on the role of fertility in women’s labour supply decisions. Us...

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Where are the Indian female politicians?

When women win elections, does it inspire other women to run for candidacy or does it convince men to close ranks before the next election?

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The road not taken: Gender gaps along paths to political power

Research and policy efforts towards greater female political participation have largely focused on women’s voting behaviour, and their representation as elected public officials. However, there are ...

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The 10% quota: Is caste no longer an indicator of backwardness?

The Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill 2019 seeks to provide for the advancement of “economically weaker sections”, through 10% reservation in government jobs and higher educational institutions ...

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A family affair: Family members’ role in female employment decisions in India

A factor behind low female labour force participation in India is family members’ objection to women working. Based on an experiment in Karnataka, this article assesses whether employers can use lig...

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Sparking the #MeToo revolution in India: Delhi's 'Nirbhaya' case

In 2012, anger erupted on the streets of Delhi following the violent rape and murder of a young woman. This article estimates the impact of the incident on the reporting of crimes against women in Del...

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The persistent gender gap in political participation in India

Women as citizens show up and speak up less in political spaces than men across the globe, particularly in lower- and middle-income countries. This article studies the persistent gender gap in politic...

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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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Ancestral ecological endowments and contemporary sex ratios

About six million women are ‘missing’ each year from the world, of which 2 million are from India alone. This article finds that there are proportionately more missing women in regions with poorer...

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The anomaly of women’s work and education in India

There has been a decline in the female labour force participation rate and size of the female labour force in India in recent years. This article looks at this trend in conjunction with female educati...

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Anisha

Anisha Sharma

Ashoka University

Advaith

Advaith Jayakumar

Columbia University

Farzana

Farzana Afridi

Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi Centre

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Gaurav Khanna

University of California, San Diego

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Natalie Bau

University of California, Los Angeles

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Alessandra Voena

Stanford University

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Udayan Rathore

Wadhwani Foundation

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Samuel Asher

Imperial College London

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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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