The Impact of a National Early Childhood Development Program on Future Schooling Attainment: Evidence from ICDS in India

Abstract

A central argument for early childhood nutrition is that it improves health, educational, and economic outcomes in later life. Our understanding of the long-term relationship between nutrition and educational attainment in low- and middle-income countries is based on a few small-scale trials that may lack validity in contexts such as India, because the underlying socioeconomic and demographic conditions are different. In this study, we evaluate the effect of India’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), a national program of supplementary nutrition and other health services for children and new mothers, on future educational attainment. Using data from a large national household survey, we determine exposure to the program based on the year ICDS centers were established in villages or city wards. We employ household fixed-effect regression models to find that 15- to 54-year-old men and 15- to 49-year-old women who were fully exposed to an ICDS center during the first three years of life complete on average up to 0.65 additional grades of schooling than those with no exposure. If we also consider partial exposure to ICDS, the effect of the treatment is 0.52 extra grades of schooling . For ICDS centers that are known to provide supplementary nutrition, individuals in the above age groups with full exposure during the first three years of life complete 1.08 additional grades of schooling (0.93 extra years if we also consider partial exposure). Effect size varies by population subgroups, with women and members of Hindu and female-headed households gaining 1.19, 1.17, and 1.16 extra grades of schooling , respectively.