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The 'Nowhere' Children: Patriarchy and the Role of Girls in India's Rural Economy

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  • Uma Kambhampati
  • Raji Rajan

Abstract

This paper analyses the contribution that girls make to the rural economy in India through their involvement in the labour market as well as in household chores. We model this in the context of the very different institutional and familial arrangements for girl children prevalent in different parts of India. Analysing the determinants of these activities within a multivariate probit model, we find that the best possible outcome for girls is in districts with high female literacy because here the probability of schooling increases and the probability of work decreases. Less satisfactory but still acceptable outcomes arise in districts where the female labour participation is high. Our results also show that the presence of very young siblings in the household worsens the probability of girls going to school or even working. The presence of older female siblings improves the chances of schooling while that of older male siblings increases the probability of girls doing household chores.

Suggested Citation

  • Uma Kambhampati & Raji Rajan, 2008. "The 'Nowhere' Children: Patriarchy and the Role of Girls in India's Rural Economy," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(9), pages 1309-1341.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:44:y:2008:i:9:p:1309-1341
    DOI: 10.1080/00220380802264978
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Cigno, Alessandro & Rosati, Furio C., 2000. "Why do Indian Children Work, and is it Bad for Them?," IZA Discussion Papers 115, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Sonia Bhalotra, 2007. "Is Child Work Necessary?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(1), pages 29-55, February.
    3. M.Biggeri & L.Guarcello & S.Lyon & F.Rosati, 2003. "The Puzzle of 'Idle' Children: Neither in School nor performing Economic Activity: Evidence from six Countries," UCW Working Paper 5, Understanding Children's Work (UCW Programme).
    4. Uma Kambhampati, 2008. "Does household expenditure on education in India depend upon the returns to education?," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2008-60, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kambhampati, Uma S. & Rajan, Raji, 2006. "Economic growth: A panacea for child labor?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 426-445, March.
    2. Chhavi Tiwari & Srinivas Goli & Anu Rammohan, 2022. "Reproductive Burden and Its Impact on Female Labor Market Outcomes in India: Evidence from Longitudinal Analyses," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(6), pages 2493-2529, December.
    3. Krisztina Kis-Katos, 2012. "Gender differences in work-schooling decisions in rural North India," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 491-519, December.
    4. Webbink, Ellen & Smits, Jeroen & de Jong, Eelke, 2012. "Hidden Child Labor: Determinants of Housework and Family Business Work of Children in 16 Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 631-642.
    5. Anupam Sarkar, 2018. "Out of the school children and their participation in economic and other domestic activities in India: a study based on recent NSS data," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 20(1), pages 75-109, April.
    6. Kelly Jones, 2014. "Growing Up Together: Cohort Composition and Child Investment," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(1), pages 229-255, February.
    7. Ellen Webbink & Jeroen Smits & Eelke Jong, 2013. "Household and Context Determinants of Child Labor in 221 Districts of 18 Developing Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(2), pages 819-836, January.
    8. Mikołaj Szołtysek & Radosław Poniat & Sebastian Klüsener & Siegfried Gruber, 2017. "Family organisation and human capital inequalities in historic Europe: testing the association anew," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2017-012, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    9. Balhasan Ali & Preeti Dhillon & Sivakami Muthusamy & Udaya Shankar Mishra, 2023. "Understanding Female Labour Force Participation and Domestic Work in India: The Role of Co-residence and Household Composition," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 8(2), pages 162-193, July.
    10. Chandan Jain, 2019. "Analysing Changes in Gender Difference in Learning in Rural India over Time," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 17(4), pages 913-935, December.
    11. Szoltysek, Mikolaj & Poniat, Radosław, 2019. "Historical family systems and lasting developmental trajectories in Europe: the power of the family?," SocArXiv ad7qr, Center for Open Science.

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