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Rural roads infrastructure and women empowerment in India

Author

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  • Nandwani, Bharti
  • Roychowdhury, Punarjit

Abstract

The paper examines the impact of a rural roads construction program in India on women's outcomes. While spatial integration can provide women with increased education and employment opportunities, the extent of benefits might be limited by underlying gender norms. We identify the impact of the policy by exploiting the program rule that assigned roads based on the village population. Using a two-way fixed effect methodology, we find that increase in rural roads construction lowers mobility restrictions faced by women and improves norms around domestic violence. However, the result are mixed with respect to participation in other decision making and financial autonomy. Additionally, while we find positive impact on education, there is no impact on employment outcomes for females. We argue that a possible reason for a partial improvement in women outcomes could be gendered impact of the policy - men benefit more in terms of employment than women.

Suggested Citation

  • Nandwani, Bharti & Roychowdhury, Punarjit, 2023. "Rural roads infrastructure and women empowerment in India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1320, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1320
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    9. Shamdasani, Yogita, 2021. "Rural road infrastructure & agricultural production: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender Norms; India; Roads; Women Empowerment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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