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Female labour force participation: Measurement and data quality

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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...

  • Symposium

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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Affirmative action in credit markets: Can it enhance minorities’ welfare?

In 2009, as part of a Government of India programme to improve the welfare of religious minorities, commercial banks were directed to increase credit to these groups. This article finds that the polic...

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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

IGC Panel Discussion: Women’s economic empowerment

In December 2019, the India Programme of the International Growth Centre (IGC), organised a panel discussion on ‘Women Economic Empowerment: Constraint & Solutions’ in Patna, in collaboration with...

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Recent Contributors

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

Kanika

Kanika Mahajan

Ashoka University

Zahra

Zahra Siddique

University of Bristol

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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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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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