Social Capital and Early Childhood Development Evidence from Rural India

1. Social Capital and Early Childhood DevelopmentEvidence from Rural India Wendy Janssens Washington, 20 May 2004

2. Introduction • Background • Methodology • Child outcomes • Conclusion & further research

3. Social capital and child development • Individual level social capital • Community level social capital • Social capital and child outcomes • e.g. Runyan et al. (1998), Braatz & Putnam (1998), Willms & Somers (2001)

4. Hypotheses Programme Knowledge Collective action Child outcomes

5. Externalities in programme villages? Programme Knowledge Collective action Child outcomes in non-participating households

6. Child outcomes • Preschool enrolment • School enrolment • Immunization coverage • Health and hygiene practices

7. Description of the programme • Context: State of Bihar • The Mahila Samakhya programme • Objectives • Activities e.g.: • training on literacy, health, women’s status • savings and credit groups • informal preschool/school construction

8. Membership in the programme • The difference between non-members is never significant at 10% level or less • The difference between programme villages and control villages never significant at 10% level or less.

9. Sample selection • Sample region • Sample size and selection: • 75 programme villages (1500 hh) • 10 participating households (“Members”) • 10 non-participating households (“Non-members”) • 30 control villages (600 hh) • 20 control households (“Control group”) • Selection criteria for programme blocks

10. Sample selection

11. Data collection • Household interviews • Group interviews / village interviews • Mahila Samakhya data • Secondary data

12. Mahila Samakhya and education • Parental attitudes towards education • Parental participation in school activities

13. Parental attitudes towards education

14. Parental participation in school activities

15. Child outcomes (1) • Preschool enrolment (3 - 5 years olds) • School enrolment (6 - 13 year olds)

16. Preschool enrolment by age

17. Explanatory variables • Child characteristics • Sex • Age • Household characteristics • Caste, religion • Household and female education • Income • Female head of household • Household size and dependency ratio • Programme characteristics • Member of Mahila Samakhya • Programme village • Community characteristics • Number of preschools (schools, distance to health center) • District dummies • Block characteristics (selection criteria)

18. Preschool enrolment *: p<0.10, **: p<0.05, ***: p<0.01

19. School enrolment by gender

20. School enrolment by caste

21. School enrolment

23. Child outcomes (2) • Immunization coverage (0 - 13 year olds): • polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria, measles • Health and hygiene practices (household): • prevalence and treatment of diarrhea

24. Immunization coverage

25. Immunization

26. Summary immunization

27. Prevalence of diarrhea in the last month

28. Treatment of diarrhea

29. Conclusion (1) Evidence suggests positive impact of the programme on participants: • increased awareness of parents • increased participation in education • increased child outcomes (preschool, school, immunization, incidence of diarrhea)

30. Conclusion (2) External effects of the programme on non-participating households seem substantial: • increased participation in school activities • increased child outcomes (preschool, school, immunization) especially for girls and children from Scheduled Castes

31. Conclusion (3) Importance of good comparison groups in programme evaluation in order to avoid: - underestimation of effect on participants - underestimation of externalities

32. Further research • Other measures of child outcomes • Mechanisms: • Processes that lead to external effects (role of social networks in knowledge transmission) • Dynamics of collective action