Regional Variation of Institutional Quality and Resilience of Women During COVID-19 Pandemic in India: Policy Implications for Socio-demographic ‘Left Behind’ Places

Sharif Rasel, Jagjit Plahe, Kirti Mishra

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractpeer-review

Abstract

Recently published studies reveal a regional heterogeneity of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic within a country (Bailey et al., 2021; Visagie & Turok, 2021). For instance, Visagie and Turok (2021) reported a rural-urban inequality in the impact of the pandemic on employment, government assistance and food security in South Africa. These studies argue that this uneven distribution of the impact is largely caused by a variation of institutional quality across the space (e.g. Rodríguez-Pose & Burlina, 2021). Through a survey of 1307 women from six states in India, the current study empirically measures the resilience of women during the COVID-19 pandemic using a novel toolkit and attempts to investigate the role of state governance in its regional variation. Out of the 1307 respondents, 655 women received supports form World Vision India and graduated from extreme poverty. Yet, they show a variation of resilience across the six states. Using the concept of human agency, this study hypothesises that the institutional context of each state explains this variation of women resilience.

Previous studies find that the sub-national variation of the governance quality explains an uneven socio-economic development within a country (Charron, Dijkstra, & Lapuente, 2014). This may later cause an economic disparity between the sub-national regions (Beenstock & Felsenstein, 2008). A variation of resilience of women between the Indian states found in this study may thus create a regional inequality of economic recovery of different states from the pandemic which may result in further disparity between the states. An existing socio-demographic disparity could thus create a circular causality of economic disparity among the states. The findings of this study would contribute to the policy debate of regional development and help policymakers to adopt a place-based socio-economic development strategy.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages2
Publication statusPublished - 2023
EventThe Regional Studies Association’s Annual Conference 2023: Transforming Regions: Policies and Planning for People and Places - Ljubljana, Slovenia
Duration: 14 Jun 202317 Jun 2023
https://www.regionalstudies.org/events/2023rsaannualconf/

Conference

ConferenceThe Regional Studies Association’s Annual Conference 2023
Country/TerritorySlovenia
CityLjubljana
Period14/06/2317/06/23
Internet address

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • Resilience
  • Indian women
  • Economic disparity

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Regional Variation of Institutional Quality and Resilience of Women During COVID-19 Pandemic in India: Policy Implications for Socio-demographic ‘Left Behind’ Places'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this