The frontline administration in India is infamous for corruption and patronage, indifference towards citizens, low effort and high absenteeism. This blog reports findings from a year-long qualitative.....

The frontline administration in India is infamous for corruption and patronage, indifference towards citizens, low effort and high absenteeism. This column reports findings from a year-long qualitativ.....

The frontline administration in India is infamous for corruption and patronage, indifference towards citizens, low effort and high absenteeism. This blog reports findings from a year-long qualitative.....

Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional validity of reservation of 25 per cent of admissions at the entry-level in private unaided schools for disadvantaged sections, focus should shi.....

This column analyses the current status of implementation of Section 12(1)(c) of the Right to Education Act, and suggests ways to overcome hindrances in effective implementation and make the education.....

A transparent system of admission which doesn't allow schools to ‘cherry-pick' students, and gives parents the right to choose schools, and streamlining reimbursements, will go a long way in the imp.....

भारत की स्थानीय नौकरशाही भ्रष्टाचार और भाई-भतीजावाद, नागरिकों की �.....

पहले ब्लॉग में, हमने बिहार में प्रारम्भिक शिक्षा के परिवेश और कामकाज के संबं.....

Student attendance in government schools in Bihar has been low for some time.[1] The Government of Bihar (GoB), with a view to boost attendance in its schools, decided that onl.....

Despite increased attention to school based learning over the past decade by policy makers, the ASER reports have shown that the learning levels of children in the Indian education system have rema.....

As mentioned previously, this blog post discusses the findings from the PAHELI survey with respect to the JSY. 1. Institutional and home deliveries Out of 3178 deliveries, 48% deliveries took pl.....

Elected politicians and bureaucrats are important pillars of governance. In India and in many other countries, politicians have very limited powers over the bureaucrats, at least in theory.  F.....

The landmark Right to Education (RTE) act will soon celebrate its fifth anniversary. Of its many important provisions, section 12(1)(c) has probably attracted the most limelight. It states that at lea.....

About the Book India believed it could take development closer to its people, make the government more accountable, and empower women and oppressed communities through decentralisa.....

This report describes the status of implementation of the constitutional mandate under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (Section 12(1)(c)) for private unaided schools (non-mi.....

Trends over the last 25 years suggest that nearly 80% of the social sector spending has come from state budgets. Taken together with other economic happenings in the country, the centre’s role in �.....

This report titled State of the Nation: RTE Section 12(1)(c) purports to provide an overview of the status of implementation of Section 12(1)(c) of Right to Education Act. Section 12(1)(c) mandates th.....

The landmark Right to Education (RTE) act will soon celebrate its fifth anniversary. Of its many important provisions, section 12(1)(c) has probably attracted the most limelight. It states that at lea.....

Education reforms, bureaucracy and the puzzles of implementation: A case study from Bihar It is a widely accepted truth that the Indian state suffers from a serious crisis of implementation capabil.....

Elementary education policy in India is undergoing an important transition. For decades, the primary goal of the Indian Government’s elementary education policy was to create a universal education s.....

The landscape of elementary education (EE) has changed dramatically in the last few years. It has been characterized by a concerted push to build physical and human infrastructure in government school.....

Despite widespread and substantial private expenditure on private tutoring outside the formal school system in many developing countries, not much is known about their effects on learning outcomes. T.....

Recent years have seen significant changes in the landscape of elementary education (EE) in India. Yet, updated estimates on public and private expenditure on EE are not available. This paper provide.....

Janani Suraksha Yojana, Institutional Deliveries and Maternal Mortality: What does the Evidence say? Despite tremendous medical advances, the instances of maternal and neonatal mortality occur quit.....

Despite increased attention to school based learning over the past decade by policy makers, the ASER reports have shown that the learning levels of children in the Indian education system have remaine.....

Despite widespread and substantial private expenditure on private tutoring outside the formal school system in many developing countries, not much is known about their effects on learning outcomes. Th.....

Recent years have seen significant changes in the landscape of elementary education (EE) in India. Yet, updated estimates on public and private expenditure on EE are not available. This paper fills th.....

Student attendance in government schools in Bihar has been low for some time.[1] The Government of Bihar (GoB), with a view to boost attendance in its schools, decided that only t.....

The last two decades have seen a tremendous expansion of the government school system (and probably an even more rapid expansion of private schools) in India. Unfortunately, learning levels have not s.....

India has been one of the worst performers as far as maternal mortality is concerned. The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), which measures the number of female deaths between ages 15-49 years , due to m.....

There has always been a criticism that government schemes and programmes are not evaluated rigorously. The idea of having an Independent Evaluation Office to provide “.....

As mentioned previously, this blog post discusses the findings from the PAHELI survey with respect to the JSY. 1. Institutional and home.....

The Government of India (GoI) has ambitious plans “to transfer individual benefits from the Government directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries”.....

With a view to reduce high levels of maternal and neonatal mortality, the National Rural Health Mission launched the Janani Suraksha Yojana in 2005. This is an innovative conditional cash transfer pro.....

I was reading Ajay Shah’s blog the other day where he made the point that merely sending money down.....

Days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Independence Day speech, there was a strong rumour that he would announce a scheme to provide free mobile phones and talk-time worth Rs. 200 for household.....

For the last couple of months, majority of us at AI, including me, were busy with a survey of around 450 government schools spread across 4 districts in 2 states. The objective of the survey was to tr.....

By now, you are all familiar with the PAISA reports and the .....

Recently, I attended the release of an interesting report, ‘Quality Education Study’, put together by Educational Initiatives and Wipro-Applying Thoughts to Schools. The study tries to assess lear.....

It was exactly nineteen years ago, on April 24, 1993, that the Constitution (73rd Amendment Act), 1992, came into force. Two decades have passed since then but efforts to devolve real po.....

Ambrish Dongre, Accountability Initiative The Supreme Court, in its landmark judgment, upheld the constitutional validity.....

Finally, the PAISA District surveys are over! The Jalpaigudi survey has just been completed; the filled, checked and rechecked questionnaires have now reached us. It took us 4 months to cover 140-145.....

I recently came across two very interesting papers by Robert Jensen and Nolan Miller, where they.....

As discussed previously, the methodology of the BPL Census 2006 was criticised which led to constitution of an expert group in August 2008. According to the expert group, the focus of the Census metho.....

Amidst the din about corruption, inflation and shooting by Chhota Rajan, an important piece of news received relatively less attention- launch of the fourth national socio-economic census, more popula.....

Since May 20th, we have been in Lucknow participating in the ‘PAHELI’ workshop organized by PRATHAM. ‘PAHELI’- People’s Audit for Health, Edu.....

It has been a year since the beginning of the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The Act lays down a number of things to be done at the level of the Central and the state governments......

There has been a long debate about paying the government teachers (and public sector employees, in general) as per their performance. It has been argued that problems like high absenteeism, lack of te.....

The PAISA survey is conducted annually through the Annual Survey of Education (ASER) –Rural. This is the second PAISA report. In 2009, the survey covered a total of 14231.....

Do schools get their money? Between October and November 2009, PAISA went to 14,560 government run elementary schools across India to ask the following questions: Did you get your money? When did you.....

A Case Study of Gram Panchayat Fund Flows in Birbhum District, West Bengal Analytical studies on rural local government finance are few and far between in India. The paucity of reliable data and th.....

Cash transfers, whether conditional or unconditional, are getting a lo.....

The extensive use of contract or para teachers in government primary s.....

A recent report in the Times of India, UP’s 10 lakh ‘missing’ kids hint.....

Elected politicians and bureaucrats are important pillars of governance. In India and in many other countries, politicians have very limited powers over the bureaucrats, at least in theory.  For exam.....

The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is the Government of India’s flagship program for rural health. Among its various components, the ‘Janani Suraksha Yojna’ (JSY),.....