Pudhu Vaazhvu Project Evaluation of Phase 2- Baseline Household and Village Survey Data, 2013

Evaluating Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation (Pudhu Vaazhvu) Project, Additional Financing Blocks This is baseline data collected to evaluate the Phase 2 of the PVP project in Tamil Nadu using an RDD design. Collaboration: World Bank Social Observatory Team, with Govt of Tamil Nadu's Pudhu Vaazhvu project. The data comes from the first (baseline) of two rounds of surveys commissioned by PVP, with the technical assistance of the World Bank. Independent survey firms were hired to conduct the surveys. Baseline data collection was carried out in March-June 2013 and endline data was collected in July-September 2016. The baseline data collection coincided with the initial implementation of PVP, which were restricted to institutional revival in phase two areas. Core interventions in phase two areas were implemented only after the completion of baseline data collection. The final set of data covers a three-year period when both PVP and TNSRLM were in operation. Our sample consisted of ten treatment blocks and ten control blocks. TNSRLM also started its activities in all our control blocks. Eight of the ten control blocks are categorized as Intensive blocks under TNSRLM, the remaining two blocks are Extensive blocks. Fifteen VPs were chosen at random in every block, thus giving us an evaluation sample of 238 VPs. Thirteen households were randomly chosen in each VP, which included the VP President’s household giving us a total sample of 3120 households. Since all households in treatment areas were eligible for PVP’s schemes ex-ante, they were all considered “intended for treatment''. Additionally, since PVP works with identified target groups of poor, which are overwhelmingly drawn from Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) groups, we over sampled SC and ST households in proportion to their population shares, to accurately estimate the impact of PVP. The household questionnaire has two modules: (i) a general household module that includes an LSMS type consumption module, and detailed information on the livelihoods portfolio and debt profile of a household; and (ii) a woman’s module that was administered to an adult married woman in a household, and measures different metrics of women’s empowerment and agency. These measures include questions on decision-making within the household, and women’s participation in local government and civic action. In addition to household surveys, a village focus group discussion was conducted to collect information on key infrastructure, and public good preferences in the village. A VP President survey collected information on a President’s political background and preferences. PVP areas received an additional survey that collected data on key activities of implementation and progress of the VPRC. This research paper is an output of the Social Observatory of the World Bank’s Research Group and the Pudhu Vaazhvu Project (PVP). We thank the World Bank task team, managed by Shobha Shetty and led by Samik Sundar Das, and the project staff at PVP for their help and support with this evaluation. We also thank GfK and Gandhigram for implementing this survey, and Manivannan Govindaraj for his excellent field supervision. We thank PVP and SAFANSI for funding this study. This paper reflects the individual views of the authors and does not in any way represent the official position of the World Bank or its member countries.