Testing Information Constraints on India's Largest Antipoverty Program

Testing Information Constraints on India's Largest Antipoverty Program

Public knowledge about India's ambitious Employment Guarantee Scheme is low in one of India's poorest states, Bihar, where participation is also unusually low. Is the solution simply to tell people their rights? Or does their lack of know...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Ravallion, Martin, van de Walle, Dominique, Dutta, Puja, Murgai, Rinku
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:	ACCESS TO EMPLOYMENT ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACCESS TO RADIOS BELIEFS CHILD CARE CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS COLLABORATION COMMISSION ON POPULATION DEMOCRACY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEVELOPMENT POLICY DISABILITY DISCUSSION DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DRINKING WATER ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS ECONOMICS FAMILY MEMBERS FERTILITY RATES FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS FOCUS GROUPS GENDER GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS HOUSEHOLD LEVEL HOUSING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IDEA IDEAS IDENTITY ILLITERACY IMMUNIZATION INCIDENCE OF POVERTY INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS INSIGHTS INTERVENTIONS KNOWLEDGE GAPS LABOR MARKET LACK OF INFORMATION LACK OF KNOWLEDGE LAND OWNERSHIP LEARNING LEGAL RIGHTS LEVELS OF EDUCATION LOWER FERTILITY MANDATES MANUAL LABOR MIGRANT MIGRATION OLD AGE PARTICIPATION RATES POLICY DECISIONS POLICY DISCUSSIONS POLICY RESEARCH POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER POLITICAL PARTICIPATION POOR FAMILIES POPULATION PROJECTIONS PRIMARY EDUCATION PRIMARY SCHOOL PROGRESS PUBLIC AWARENESS PUBLIC GOOD PUBLIC INFORMATION PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE PUBLIC SERVICES RADIO ROLE OF WOMEN RURAL AREAS RURAL DEVELOPMENT RURAL POPULATION RURAL POVERTY SCHOOLING SERVICE DELIVERY SERVICE PROVIDERS SOCIAL GROUPS SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE SOCIAL INTERACTION SOCIAL NETWORKS TELEVISION TV TYPE OF KNOWLEDGE UNEMPLOYMENT VICTIMS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/09/18227716/testing-information-constraints-indias-largest-antipoverty-program http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15834

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Summary:	Public knowledge about India's ambitious Employment Guarantee Scheme is low in one of India's poorest states, Bihar, where participation is also unusually low. Is the solution simply to tell people their rights? Or does their lack of knowledge reflect deeper problems of poor people's agency and an unresponsive supply side? This paper reports on an information campaign that was designed and implemented in the form of an entertaining movie to inform people of their rights under the scheme. In randomly-assigned villages, the movie brought significant gains in knowledge and more positive perceptions about the impact of the scheme. But objectively measured employment showed no gain on average, suggesting that the movie created a "groupthink," changing social perceptions about the scheme but not individual efficacy in accessing it. The paper concludes that awareness generation needs to go hand-in-hand with supply-side changes.

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