Evaluating a School-Based Gender Sensitization Program in India

This study is a randomized evaluation of a secondary-school-based attitude-change program aimed at promoting gender equality, reducing son preference in reproductive decisions, and improving girls’ school enrollment. The premise is that a promising way to reduce sex-selective abortion and other forms of gender bias is to shift the attitudes and norms of teenagers. The intervention is led by Breakthrough, an Indian NGO, and targets female and male students in Classes 7 to 9. We will measure the impact of two years of exposure to the program in 150 treatment schools in Haryana, the state with the most skewed child sex ratio in India. The main outcomes are gender attitudes, gender-related behaviors, and school enrollment. In addition, the study is powered for long-term tracking to measure impacts on marriage and fertility. The baseline survey is underway and will be completed in December 2013; the intervention begins in April 2014.

*To learn more about key findings from this evaluation read Reshaping Adolescents’ Gender Attitudes: Evidence from a School-Based Experiment in India and Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Attitudes: Evidence from India