Educational Enrollment and Attainment in India: Household Wealth, Gender, Village, and State Effects

This paper uses the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data collected in 1992-93 to estimate the determinants of child (aged 6 to 14) enrollment and educational attainment of a recent cohort (aged 15 to 19) in India. The analysis produces five major results. First, using an index of assets as a proxy for household wealth shows enormous gaps between the enrollment and attainment of children from rich and poor households. While 82 percent of the children from the richest 20 percent complete grade 8 only 20 percent of children from the poorest 40 percent of households do. Second, the wealth gaps vary widely across states of India. Third, gender differences exacerbate these differences, so while 80 percent of girls from households in the top 20 percent complete grade 8 only 9.5 percent of girls from the poorest 40 percent do so. Fourth, the physical presence or absence of school facilities in the rural villages explains only a very small part of enrollment differences. Fifth, there are huge gaps in the enrollment rates of observationally equivalent households across states, especially among the poor. For instance, enrollment rates are 44 percentage points higher in Kerala than for an observationally equivalently poor household in Bihar. We conclude with an examination of the state specific policies that could account for such differences. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.