Reports on Child Well-Being, Schooling, and Living Standards

UNICEF entered into a partnership with the Foundation for Agrarian Studies as part of its Social Policy Programme. In the partnership programme, FAS provided cross-sectional and micro-level data on the status of children from a variety of agro-ecological settings. The unique FAS-PARI socio-economic database was used to examine and discuss various types of deprivation among children and the factors associated with such deprivations in 14 villages across six States of India. Specifically, an attempt was made to link deprivations among children in respect of schooling and access to basic amenities to household incomes, assets, and occupations, and to the specific agro-ecological and socio-economic structure of each village. This micro-level analysis can help complement information on macro-level trends in child well-being, and help provide nuance and depth to our understanding of the well-being of rural children.

The output of this collaboration was a series of publications written by Venkatesh B. Athreya on aspects of deprivation and living standards among women and children in rural areas.

Report written for the Indian Council of Social Science Research by Aparajita Bakshi and Arindam Das: “Income Diversification in Rural India, with a Special Focus on Dalit Households.”

Report written by Madhura Swaminathan, Aditi Dixit, and T. Jayaraman and supported by Action Aid and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences: “Land and Livelihood Strategies in Rural Karnataka: A Preliminary Report on Intensive Household Surveys in Three Villages.”

Report written for the University Grants Commission by Aparajita Bakshi, R. Ramakumar, and Madhura Swaminathan: “Incomes of Rural Households in Maharashtra: A Study Based on Primary Data from Two Villages.”