Experimental Design
In collaboration with the NGO who set up the school in rural Jaisalmer, 6 villages in the proximity of the school, within a radius of 18km from it, have been chosen as the target population from where girls would be selected and offered to be enrolled in the school, according to their socio-economic status. A survey was carried out to collect baseline data, by means of a random walk which consisted of two steps. In the first step, the teams of enumerators discussed and identified a central point for each revenue village (an Anganwadi, a temple, a community center, the Sarpanch house, etcetera). In the second, enumerators selected households from that central point onward. If two teams were simultaneously working in the same revenue village, one team would start walking, say, South from the central point, and the other team in the opposite direction. During this walk every third household was randomly selected and surveyed if it satisfied the eligibility criterium of having at least one girl in schooling age and consent was given, otherwise the teams would move to the next household. This was done until the targeted sample size was reached. Once data of girls were collected and a threshold for enrollment was determined based on the data collected, potential beneficiaries of the school program were identified. Out of this set, each girl was assigned to either treatment (= offered an admission letter to go to school) or control, based on a random lottery carried out by a computer.