Growing Up in Ethiopia and Andhra Pradesh: The Impact of Social Protection Schemes on Girls’ Roles and Responsibilities

Abstract

The focus of this article is the effect on adolescent girls' roles and responsibilities of public works schemes or cash transfers, which are the main forms of social protection in developing countries. Increasing participation in social protection is intended to enhance the development of girls in participating households, but evidence on their school participation and workloads suggests that the reverse may be happening. The article probes what happens to girls' roles and responsibilities when households participate in social protection schemes in rural Ethiopia and Andhra Pradesh. It argues that effects are complex, and often context-specific; however, the assumption that 'beneficiaries' benefit means that negative impacts are rarely acknowledged. The article combines a review of other papers addressing the effects of social protection on children's work with analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, recognising that this question cannot be answered with a methodology that considers girls' schooling or workloads in isolation.Ce papier s'intéresse à l'effet, sur les rôles et responsabilités des adolescentes, des programmes de travaux publics et des transferts en espèces, qui constituent les principales formes de protection sociale dans les pays en développement. Augmenter la participation aux régimes de protection sociale vise, notamment, à favoriser le développement des filles appartenant aux ménages participant à ces programmes, mais des données sur leur scolarisation et leurs charges de travail suggèrent que l'inverse peut se produire. L'article examine en quoi les rôles et responsabilités des filles se modifient lorsque les ménages adhèrent à des régimes de protection sociale en Éthiopie rurale et dans l'Andhra Pradesh. Il indique que les effets sont complexes et dépendent souvent du contexte; toutefois, le principe selon lequel les « bénéficiaires » bénéficient implique que leurs impacts négatifs sont rarement reconnus. L'article associe une revue d'autres études portant sur les effets de la protection sociale sur le travail des enfants à une analyse de données quantitatives et qualitatives, et reconnaît que cette question ne peut être abordée en considérant séparément la scolarité et le travail des filles.

Social protection for all ages? Impacts of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program on child nutrition

“…The authors note that the public works requirement, including its timetable, leads households to supplement adult labor with child labor. Camfield (2014) finds considerable evidence of girls working directly in the PSNP program, or increasing their household chores in response to caregivers' participation. Hoddinott et al (2010) find that boys aged 6-16 spend less time on agricultural labor, and younger boys aged 6-10 as well as girls aged 11-16 spend less time on tasks within the household.…”

Understanding Children’s Harmful Work: The Methodological Landscape

“…However, there are no examples of longitudinal mixed methods studies specifically on the dynamics of child labour (for example, how children's workloads changed over time; how changes in a household's poverty level may affect children's labour participation). This shortcoming has also been highlighted by others (Camfield, 2014;Kuimi et al, 2018;Ibrahim et al, 2019).…”

Gender and education policy in India: Twists, turns and trims of transnational policy transfers

“…As Camfield notes, in the NREGA conditional cash transfer scheme, the absence of on-site childcare provisions and high female participation resulted in older children being pulled out of school to care for babies. These schemes embed girls in a ‘set of social activities’ that is shaped by ‘culture, ideology and social institutions’ (2013: 118).…”