Does Nutrition‐Led Multifaceted Program Impact Adolescent Girls' Educational and Learning Outcomes? Evidence From India

Mishra, Narbadeshwar ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2727-2626 and Mukhopadhyay, Jyoti Prasad (2026) Does Nutrition‐Led Multifaceted Program Impact Adolescent Girls' Educational and Learning Outcomes? Evidence From India. Health Economics. ISSN 1057-9230 (In Press)

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Abstract

While extensive literature is available on the impact of early childhood nutritional food program on human capital gains, little we know about the impact of targeted nutritious food provisioning at a later stage on human capital gains. This paper fills this gap in the literature. We examine the causal impact of the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (SABLA), a nutrition‐led multifaceted program for adolescent girls aged 11–18 years introduced by the central government in India in 2010, on girls' educational and learning outcomes. The implementation of this program provides us with enough variation in treatment. We glean data from multiple nationally representative datasets and employ difference‐in‐differences framework to estimate the causal impact of the SABLA program. Our results indicate that the program significantly improved enrollment and basic learning outcomes, including reading ability and math skills. We attribute the salutary effects of the program to significant improvement in health status (BMI and weight) of the adolescent girls exposed to the program and increased child‐specific educational expenditure. Our findings are consistent across different datasets, and robust to potential confounding factors, and alternative empirical specifications.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Difference‐in‐differences | Education | Health | Human capital | SABLA
Subjects: Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Gender Studies
Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Health (Social sciences)
Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Public Policy
Depositing User: Mr. Syed Anas
Date Deposited: 08 Jun 2026 10:20
Last Modified: 08 Jun 2026 10:20
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.70114
URI: https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/11546

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