Targeted Unconditional Framed Cash Transfers for Early Childhood Health and Nutrition

Although child health in India has improved over the last decade, many outcomes remain shockingly poor: in the context of our study, 45% of children under five are stunted and 29% are wasted. One promising intervention for improving child health is making unconditional cash transfers to mothers for the purchase of additional food. Researchers will test whether unconditional cash transfers made by a state government actually improve long-run child health outcomes and how to optimize the timing of transfers. The study will provide evidence on the situations in which cash transfer programs are effective, and whether these should be scaled up by the government.

The pilot project is now closed, and researchers are currently working on a full randomized evaluation on this topic, also funded by the CaTCH Initiative.