Effect of Gender Focused Program on the Educational Attainment of Adolescent Girls in India
研究印度SABLA健康营养项目对11-18岁女孩教育的间接影响，发现项目改善了短期健康，进而使数学、英语和阅读成绩分别提升4-10、1-4和2-10个百分点。
This study examines the positive spill-over effects of India’s Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (popularly known as SABLA), a targeted health and nutrition program launched in 2011 to support girls aged 11–18, both in and out of school. While the program’s primary goal is to improve adolescent health and well-being through nutritious meals and health education, this paper examines whether these interventions have an indirect impact on their educational outcomes. Using a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits age and district-level variation in SABLA’s rollout, the study finds significant improvements in short-term health, which may have enhanced foundational learning among eligible girls. Their basic mathematics proficiency increased by about 4–10 percentage points, and their English proficiency increased by about 1–4 percentage points, while reading skills improved by about 2–10 percentage points. These findings reveal important spill-over effects of health-focused interventions on cognitive achievement, underscoring the value of integrated, gender-sensitive policy design. It is the first study to link a large focused initiative, such as SABLA, to standardised academic outcomes, providing new evidence on how public investments in adolescent girls’ health can drive gains in their educational attainment.