How does India's rural roads program affect the grassroots ? findings from a survey in Orissa

Clive Bell and Susanne van Dillen

No 6167, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper analyzes the effects of all-weather rural roads on households'net output prices, education and health in a poor, drought-prone region of India. Of 30 villages originally surveyed in 2001-02, when two had such roads, a further nine received them between January 2007 and December 2009 under the program Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. Cross-section comparisons involving all villages and'before and after'comparisons in the nine yielded these findings: (i) net output prices were 5 per cent or more higher; (ii) substantially fewer days of schooling were lost due to bad weather, largely because teachers had fewer absences; (iii) the acutely sick received more timely treatment and were more likely to be treated in a hospital than in the nearest primary health clinic; and (iv) the respondents ranked the resulting benefits in the domains of health and education at least as highly as the'commercial'ones.

Keywords: Transport Economics Policy&Planning; Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Social Accountability; Housing&Human Habitats; Disease Control&Prevention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-tre
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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