IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i1p296-d303996.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The State of School Infrastructure in the Assembly Constituencies of Rural India: Analysis of 11 Census Indicators from Pre-Primary to Higher Education

Author

Listed:
  • Akshay Swaminathan

    (Quantitative Sciences, Flatiron Health, New York, NY 10013, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Menaka Narayanan

    (Palantir Technologies, New York, NY 10014, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Jeff Blossom

    (Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA)

  • R. Venkataramanan

    (Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK)

  • Sujata Saunik

    (Additional Chief Secretary, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Department, Mumbai 400021, India)

  • Rockli Kim

    (Division of Health Policy and Management, College of Health Sciences, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
    Department of Public Health Sciences, Graduate School, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
    Harvard Center for Population & Development Studies, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA)

  • S. V. Subramanian

    (Harvard Center for Population & Development Studies, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
    Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA)

Abstract

In India, assembly constituencies (ACs), represented by elected officials, are the primary geopolitical units for state-level policy development. However, data on social indicators are traditionally reported and analyzed at the district level, and are rarely available for ACs. Here, we combine village-level data from the 2011 Indian Census and AC shapefiles to systematically derive AC-level estimates for the first time. We apply this methodology to describe the distribution of 11 education infrastructures—ranging from pre-primary school to senior secondary school—across rural villages in 3773 ACs. We found high variability in access to higher education infrastructures and low variability in access to lower education variables. For 40.3% (25th percentile) to 79.7% (75th percentile) of villages in an AC, the nearest government senior secondary school was >5 km away, whereas the nearest government primary school was >5 km away in just 0% (25th percentile) to 1.9% (75th percentile) of villages in an AC. The states of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Bihar showed the greatest within-state variation in access to education infrastructures. We present a novel analysis of access to education infrastructure to inform AC-level policy, and demonstrate how geospatial and Census data can be leveraged to derive AC-level estimates for any population health and development indicators collected in the Census at the village level.

Suggested Citation

  • Akshay Swaminathan & Menaka Narayanan & Jeff Blossom & R. Venkataramanan & Sujata Saunik & Rockli Kim & S. V. Subramanian, 2020. "The State of School Infrastructure in the Assembly Constituencies of Rural India: Analysis of 11 Census Indicators from Pre-Primary to Higher Education," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-20, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:1:p:296-:d:303996
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/1/296/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/1/296/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christina Paxson & Norbert R. Schady, 2002. "The Allocation and Impact of Social Funds: Spending on School Infrastructure in Peru," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 16(2), pages 297-319, August.
    2. Shenggen Fan & Peter Hazell & Sukhadeo Thorat, 2000. "Government Spending, Growth and Poverty in Rural India," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 82(4), pages 1038-1051.
    3. Esther Duflo, 2001. "Schooling and Labor Market Consequences of School Construction in Indonesia: Evidence from an Unusual Policy Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 795-813, September.
    4. Nitya Mittal and J V Meenakshi, 2015. "Utilization Of Icds Services And Their Impact On Child Health Outcomes - Evidence From Three East Indian States," Working papers 247, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    5. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, 2007. "The progress of school education in India," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 23(2), pages 168-195, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chaudhary, Latika, 2010. "Taxation and educational development: Evidence from British India," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 279-293, July.
    2. Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop & Sahoo, Soham, 2016. "Does access to secondary education affect primary schooling? Evidence from India," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 124-142.
    3. Dammert, Ana C., 2008. "Child labor and schooling response to changes in coca production in rural Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 164-180, April.
    4. Marito Garcia & Jean Fares, 2008. "Youth in Africa's Labor Market," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6578, December.
    5. Harounan Kazianga & Leigh Linden & Ali Protik & Matt Sloan, 2016. "The Medium-Term Impacts of Girl-Friendly Schools: Seven-Year Evidence from School Construction in Burkina Faso," Development Working Papers 406, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano, revised 11 Nov 2016.
    6. Velilla, Raul & Bragança, Alexandre, 2020. "Coffee Price Shock and Local Economic Performance: Evidence from Colombia," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304432, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Moritz Seebacher, 2022. "Infrastructure and Girls’ Education: Bicycles, Roads, and the Gender Education Gap in India," ifo Working Paper Series 382, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    8. Deon Filmer, 2007. "If you build it, will they come? School availability and school enrolment in 21 poor countries," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(5), pages 901-928.
    9. Animesh Giri & Vinish Shrestha, 2016. "Schooling Infrastructure and Female Educational Outcomes in Nepal," Working Papers 2016-18, Towson University, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2016.
    10. Seebacher, Moritz, 2023. "Infrastructure and Girls' Education: Bicycles, Roads, and the Gender Education Gap in India," VfS Annual Conference 2023 (Regensburg): Growth and the "sociale Frage" 277569, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    11. Ravallion, Martin, 2008. "Evaluating Anti-Poverty Programs," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 59, pages 3787-3846, Elsevier.
    12. Rajshri Jayaraman & Dora Simroth, 2011. "The Impact of School Lunches on Primary School Enrollment: Evidence from India's Midday Meal Scheme," CESifo Working Paper Series 3679, CESifo.
    13. David Salomón Aké-Uitz, 2023. "Did the expansion of educational supply at higher education promote intergenerational social mobility in Mexico?/¿La expansión de la oferta educativa en la educación superior promovió la movilidad," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 38(1), pages 103-142.
    14. Somdeep Chatterjee & Prashant Poddar, 2021. "From Safe Motherhood to Cognitive Ability: Exploring Intrahousehold and Intergenerational Spillovers," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(352), pages 1075-1106, October.
    15. Chanyoung Lee & Peter F. Orazem, 2010. "Lifetime health consequences of child labor in Brazil," Research in Labor Economics, in: Child Labor and the Transition between School and Work, pages 99-133, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    16. Ali,Rubaba & Barra,Alvaro Federico & Berg,Claudia N. & Damania,Richard & Nash,John D. & Russ,Jason Daniel & Ali,Rubaba & Barra,Alvaro Federico & Berg,Claudia N. & Damania,Richard & Nash,John D. & Russ, 2015. "Transport infrastructure and welfare : an application to Nigeria," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7271, The World Bank.
    17. Das Gupta, Monica & Bongaarts, John & Cleland, John, 2011. "Population, poverty, and sustainable development : a review of the evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5719, The World Bank.
    18. David K. Evans & Arkadipta Ghosh, 2008. "Prioritizing Educational Investments in Children in the Developing World," Working Papers WR-587, RAND Corporation.
    19. John C. Bluedorn & Elizabeth U. Cascio, 2005. "Education and Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Purerto Rico," Economics Papers 2005-W21, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    20. Pablo Ibarraran & Miguel Sarzosa & Yuri Suarez Dillon Soares, 2008. "The Welfare Impacts of Local Investment Projects: Evidence from the Guatemala FIS," OVE Working Papers 0208, Inter-American Development Bank, Office of Evaluation and Oversight (OVE).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:1:p:296-:d:303996. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.