Rural School Investment and the Rural-Urban Education Gap: Evidence from India

Arijit Ray and Jane E. Ruseski

Journal of Development Studies, 2026, vol. 62, issue 1, 68-82

Abstract: An important cause of the rural-urban educational gap is the lack of basic school infrastructure in rural areas, such as availability of restrooms for children. In an effort to improve child health, particularly in rural areas, the government of India implemented the School Sanitation and Hygiene Education program (SSHE), a nation-wide initiative to build restrooms in schools. This initiative was part of a larger rural sanitation improvement program, the Total Sanitation Campaign, which aimed at building restrooms in every household in rural India. Using a combination of district level school characteristics and individual level data from nationally representative sources, we examine the impact of this initiative on the educational gap between rural and urban areas for female children. We find increases in completion rates and years of education in rural areas, reducing the rural-urban female education gap. We observe increased school completion rates at every level; however, the results are stronger at the primary and upper-primary levels of education. Furthermore, female children in low-income states completed secondary education more than before, an effect which is absent for rest of the country, highlighting the importance of having improved school facilities in poorer regions.

Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2025.2543260

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