Empowering Women Through Education and Influence: An Evaluation of the Indian Mahila Samakhya Program

Eeshani Kandpal, World Bank
Kathy Baylis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Mary Arends-Kuenning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract

Mahila Samakhya is an innovative Indian program that attempts to harness local peer networks to change social norms and empower women. While most studies focus on programs that target individuals, only a small number of papers evaluate community-level interventions. This article analyses the effect of this program on women's empowerment outcomes. We attempt to disentangle the mechanisms of the program, separately considering its effect on women who work and those who do not work, where the program affects the latter group solely through their reservation wage. We also consider the program's effect on non-participants, to observe whether there are spillover effects of treatment through information or by altering the social norm. Last, we address selection issues using two methods: first by using matching controlling for truncation and second by instrumenting for participation by exposure to the program. Using both methods we observe a significant effect of Mahila Samakhya on women's employment and household bargaining power.