Abstract
This study uses a randomized controlled trial design to evaluate an innovative school-based awareness and mobilization pilot program aimed at promoting gender equality and tackling the problem of son preference. The intervention, led by Breakthrough, will be piloted over two years (2014-2016) in secondary schools in 150 villages across 4 districts in Haryana, the state with the lowest child sex ratio in India. The program will target female and male students enrolled in Classes 7-9.
The study will measure whether the intervention is successful in improving youth attitudes toward gender equality and decreasing support for sex selective elimination (SSE). The study will also measure spillover effects on the attitudes of participants’ family members and differences in program impact by gender and family backgrounds of participants. The program’s impacts on gender attitudes are expected to, in turn, make the participants’ less likely to engage in and condone SSE when they start families. The study is designed so that in follow-up work, the impact of the program on fertility behaviour and on the sex ratio of participants’ children can be evaluated.
The study sample will comprise of two groups: secondary schools in 150 villages which receive the Breakthrough intervention and an additional secondary schools in 164 control villages in the same 4 districts. A baseline survey of randomly selected students and a subset of students' parents will be conducted prior to program roll-out. An endline survey will be conducted after the program has been implemented for two years.