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Field
Trial End Date
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Before
January 31, 2023
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After
April 30, 2023
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Field
Last Published
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Before
October 19, 2022 08:46 AM
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After
February 08, 2023 04:40 PM
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Field
Intervention (Public)
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Before
In this study, we use novel jobs that are normally performed by Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) units on Personal Computers/Desktops and convert them to smartphone-based micro-tasks that can be performed by women from home. These tasks are presented on a tailor-made Android mobile application, called Rani (Queen). This is a gig economy platform allowing for flexible work hours. They are all shown a similar set of tasks, their work is validated for accuracy, and payments are made weekly.
The intervention is about 100 hours of work per worker (or 1-1.5 months) on this digital job platform for women over their own smartphones. The treatment arms differ in the job contract offered to the women, specifically by location of job and payment level offered.
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After
In this study, we use novel jobs that are normally performed by Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) units on Personal Computers/Desktops and convert them to smartphone-based micro-tasks that can be performed by women from home. These tasks are presented on a tailor-made Android mobile application, called Rani (Queen). This is a gig economy platform allowing for flexible work hours. They are all shown a similar set of tasks, their work is validated for accuracy, and payments are made weekly.
The intervention is about 50-100 hours of work per worker (or 1-1.5 months) on this digital job platform for women over their own smartphones. The treatment arms differ in the job contract offered to the women, specifically by location of job and payment level offered.
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Field
Intervention End Date
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Before
December 31, 2022
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After
March 31, 2023
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Field
Primary Outcomes (Explanation)
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Before
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After
Primary outcomes -
Job take-up rates are measured by observing whether women are actually completing tasks on the Rani platform (more than 0 tasks, and more than 10 tasks) right after baseline survey. We also measure job take-up during the two baseline surveys where we ask women to self-report whether they are accepting or rejecting the job.
Mental health indicators are measured using the PHQ-9 scale (using the first 8 measures), and tension/stress scale developed for this context measured at baseline, and endline (after 2-3 months from baseline).
Agency and empowerment outcomes are measured using a combination of indices looking at: (all measured at baseline and then at endline 2-3 months from baseline) using various likert scales
(1) women's agency and decision making at home (within household measures, and being able to pursue career of own choice, restrictions in ability to work). These also include measures around women's estimated economic value for how much women should be paid for doing housework in their own house (economic value of a woman, as measured by women and their husbands), and domestic violence metrics (whether a woman believes if she goes against her husband, then he will shout at or beat her, and whether domestic violence increases/decreases when a woman first starts to earn money)
(2) financial independence measured by having own bank account under self name, and savings
(3) mobility (being allowed to visit places using public transport)
(4) social network (number of women on the floor/building who she regularly speaks to)
(5) confidence measured as level of confidence in being able to do a job
(6) aspirations measured by aspirational income level and how different it is from their actual income level
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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
Women are assigned to one of seven arms (6 treatment, and 1 control). The 6 treatment arms vary in the job location (work-from-home or WfH, work-from-center or WfC) and payment level (low, medium, high). Baseline surveys are completed with all eligible women in the study. At the end of the survey, women are offered a job contract. The job contract includes details about the job task, payment details, and the location of the job. Around 20% of the women are also told that this job contract information will be informed to their husbands through another survey conducted by a male enumerator.
Women are then asked whether they accept the job contract. After the job contract offer, women do the job for about 100 hours (over ~1.5 months) before the Endline. At Endline, women are offered different job contracts, switching the location, and adding other variables of distance to center, among other job characteristics.
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After
Women are assigned to one of seven arms (6 treatment, and 1 control). The 6 treatment arms vary in the job location (work-from-home or WfH, work-from-center or WfC) and payment level (low, medium, high). Baseline surveys are completed with all eligible women in the study. At the end of the survey, women are offered a job contract. The job contract includes details about the job task, payment details, and the location of the job. Around 20% of the women are also told that this job contract information will be informed to their husbands through another survey conducted by a male enumerator.
Women are then asked whether they accept the job contract. After the job contract offer, women do the job for about 50-100 hours (over ~1.5 months) before the Endline. At Endline, women are offered different job contracts, switching the location, and adding other variables of distance to center, among other job characteristics.
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Field
Intervention (Hidden)
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Before
In this study, we use novel jobs that are normally performed by Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) units on Personal Computers/Desktops and convert them to smartphone-based micro-tasks that can be performed by women from home. The job task of image classification is standardized using existing recommendations, along with text classification and sentiment analysis tasks. These tasks are presented on a tailor-made Android mobile application, called Rani (Queen). While available on Playstore, only the workers assigned in the experiment can earn income on it. Workers sign up with their phone number and are immediately shown their job task. This is a gig economy platform allowing for flexible work hours, so women can log in whenever they would like and work for however long they want to and work for however long they want to, with a recommendation to work for 2 hours per day. They can bring their children along to the center if they would like to as well. They are all shown a similar set of tasks, their work is validated for accuracy, and payments are made weekly.
The intervention is about 100 hours of work per worker (or 1-1.5 months) on this digital job platform for women over their own smartphones. The treatment arms differ in the job contract offered to the women, specifically by location of job and payment level offered.
|
After
In this study, we use novel jobs that are normally performed by Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) units on Personal Computers/Desktops and convert them to smartphone-based micro-tasks that can be performed by women from home. The job task of image classification is standardized using existing recommendations, along with text classification and sentiment analysis tasks. These tasks are presented on a tailor-made Android mobile application, called Rani (Queen). While available on Playstore, only the workers assigned in the experiment can earn income on it. Workers sign up with their phone number and are immediately shown their job task. This is a gig economy platform allowing for flexible work hours, so women can log in whenever they would like and work for however long they want to and work for however long they want to, with a recommendation to work for 2 hours per day. They can bring their children along to the center if they would like to as well. They are all shown a similar set of tasks, their work is validated for accuracy, and payments are made weekly.
The intervention is about 50-100 hours of work per worker (or 1-1.5 months) on this digital job platform for women over their own smartphones. The treatment arms differ in the job contract offered to the women, specifically by location of job and payment level offered.
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Field
Secondary Outcomes (Explanation)
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Before
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After
Secondary outcomes -
Job retention rates are measured by number of women in each treatment arm who work for >500 tasks, >5,000 tasks, >10,000 tasks, and completed all 15,000 tasks on the platform during the job intervention duration.
Social norms: (all measured at baseline and then at endline 2-3 months from baseline) using a likert scale
(1) Changes in perceptions of women working/not working, perceptions of others' perceptions of women's work, changes in decision to work after not being able to work
(2) Dignity: where woman's self-worth and family's image lie in a woman following social norms
(3) Capabilities: whether a woman thinks she can manage a household and a job together
(4) Insecurities: whether a woman would be worried if she started to earn more than her husband
Time-use is measured at baseline and then at endline 2-3 months from baseline where women are asked how their spend the different hours of the day working, and doing other household chores during the day.
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