Do Conditional Cash Transfers Have an Effect on Girls’ Delayed Age of Marriage Status? Findings from an Evaluation Study in North India

Priya Nanda, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
Priya Das, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
Nitin Datta, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
Lakshmi Gopalakrishnan, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
Pranita Achyut, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
Anurag Mishra, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)

We examine the impact of conditional cash transfer (CCTs) program in Haryana, Apni Beti Apna Dhan (ABAD) delay age at marriage as well as to increase the value of girl child where program beneficiaries faced a protracted payment if unmarried at age 18 years. In 2014, girls enrolled in1994-96 would have crossed legal age at marriage, which is condition for cash benefit. Round1 of study of 9,678 girls looked at effect of beneficiary status on girls education. Second round study tracks 5694 1994-96 born girls using quasi-experimental design to assess the effect of program participation on age of marriage and education. We will control for their self-efficacy, height for age, gender equitable attitudes of girl and parents and happiness index in multivariate models. We will use two-stage instrument variable approach, controlling for all demographic variables to examine the impact of the ABAD CCT program on age at marriage for girls.