Making Change with Cash?: Impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer Progress on Girl’s Education in India.

Abstract

The study focuses on the importance of the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme to address child marriage. It assesses the educational impact of Apni Beti Apna Dhan (ABAD), and implemented in Haryana, India to delay girls’ marriage. In a large quasi-experimental study of beneficiary and eligible non-beneficiary girls, we found that this CCT impacts girls’ education only until the 8th grade and not for higher education beyond this level. We also found that the program had no effect on marriage before age of 18. The majority of beneficiaries and non beneficiaries were unmarried after they had turned 18 and at the time of the second survey.