title: Do scheduled caste and scheduled tribe women legislators mean lower gender-caste gaps in primary schooling in India?
abstract: Despite India's substantial investments in primary schooling, gaps in schooling persist across gender and caste-with scheduled caste and scheduled tribe (SC/ST) girls being particularly disadvantaged. The representation of SC/ST women in state legislatures may help to mitigate this disadvantage. Specifically, because of her intersecting gender and caste/tribe identities, a SC/ST woman legislator might maintain a strong sense of solidarity especially with SC/ST girls and women, and support legislative policies benefitting SC/ST girls. Consequently, for this reason, we expect that living in a district where SC/ST women represent in state legislatures in a higher proportion may increase SC/ST girls' primary school completion, progression and performance. We tested this hypothesis using district-level data between 2000 and 2004 from the Indian Election Commission, the 2004/5 India Human Development Survey, and the Indian Census of 2001. As expected, the representation of SC/ST women in state legislatures was positively associated with SC/ST girls' grade completion and age-appropriate grade progression but was apparent not SC/ST girls' primary-school performance. SC/ST women's representation in state legislatures may reduce gender-caste gaps in primary-school attainment in India.
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health, Boston University, USA. Electronic address: nhalim@bu.edu.
authors.forename: Nafisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Halim
authors.affiliation: Hubert Department of Global Health, Emory University, USA; Department of Sociology, Emory University, USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Yount
authors.affiliation: Hubert Department of Global Health, Emory University, USA; Department of Sociology, Emory University, USA.
authors.forename: Solveig
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cunningham
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D019352:Censuses; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D044382:Population Groups; D012574:Schools; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Castes; Gender; India; Intersectionality; Primary education; Women legislators