ABSTRACT This study challenges the common assumption that Muslims in India form a socio‐economically uniform group. It foregrounds the caste hierarchy internal to the community—Ashraf (elite), Ajlaf (backward), and Arzal (Dalit‐equivalent)—and shows that this hierarchy shapes Muslim life chances as strongly as religion‐based discrimination does. The analysis draws on harmonized data from four National Sample Survey rounds (2004–05 to 2020–21), the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2023–24, Census 2011, and preliminary results from the 2025 caste enumeration. Multilevel regression, Oaxaca‐Blinder decomposition, instrumental variable estimation, and a difference‐in‐differences natural experiment are used to establish both descriptive patterns and causal mechanisms. Ashraf Muslims score 71.2 on the Composite Social Mobility Index, close to the Hindu Upper Caste benchmark of 78.4. Pasmanda Arzal communities score 31.8, the lowest of any social group and below Hindu SC/ST communities. The Ashraf–Arzal gap in higher secondary attainment widened from 19.9 to 32.5 percentage points between 2004–05 and 2024–25. Oaxaca‐Blinder decomposition attributes 44%–52% of Pasmanda employment gaps to discrimination. The instrumental variable analysis indicates that Arzal exclusion from Scheduled Caste reservations causally lowers educational attainment by 8.3 percentage points, while the Telangana difference‐in‐differences design shows that access to welfare raises Arzal girls’ school enrolment by 11.2 percentage points. Together, these results are theorized as a Pasmanda poverty trap : a self‐reinforcing cycle of constitutional exclusion, Ashraf elite capture of institutions, labor market discrimination, spatial concentration in under‐resourced districts, and gender‐caste intersectionality. The study supports calls to extend Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Muslims, to introduce sub‐quotas within the OBC framework, and to democratize the governance of Waqf and minority educational institutions. The 2025 caste census data make the urgency of these reforms hard to dispute.
ABSTRACT Despite efforts, food security remains an elusive goal in rural Africa. Without robust safety nets, households employ alternative coping strategies, including internal and international migration to leverage remittances. Using data from a 2024 nationally representative cross‐sectional survey of 17,942 rural households conducted by the Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee, we investigate whether domestic and international remittances reduce food insecurity and whether these effects are gendered. We use Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to address self‐selection bias, augmented by Inverse Probability Weighting Regression Adjustment (IPWRA) method. We find that: First, women‐headed households are more likely to receive both domestic and international remittances compared to men‐headed households. Second, both domestic and international remittances reduce food insecurity. Third, domestic remittances are more likely than international remittances to reduce mild food insecurity, but less likely to reduce extreme food insecurity. Fourth, international remittances are more likely than domestic remittances to reduce extreme food insecurity than mild food insecurity. Lastly, international remittances reduce extreme food insecurity more if a household is headed by a woman than a man, while domestic remittances have a similar effect on mild food insecurity. Policy should enable affordable remittance transfers to rural areas and increase women's power in using remittance income.
ABSTRACT The informal economy is often seen as marginalized and thought to aggravate the poverty situations of the agents within the sector. However, in sub–Saharan Africa, the informal economy is a dominant feature which can help reduce poverty, provided the sector is moderated by institutional quality, which is a knowledge gap. The study's novelty lies in the moderating effect of quality of institutions in the informal economy‐poverty debate. The paper uses cross‐country panel data from 41 sub‐Saharan African countries from 2005 to 2019 and the two‐step system generalized method of moments estimation technique. Principally, the results indicate that in both the short and the long run, improvement in the quality of institutions is not only crucial for poverty reduction but is also important in complementing informality to reduce poverty in sub‐Saharan Africa.
ABSTRACT Cash transfers have become an increasingly important social protection tool in development and humanitarian contexts. In developing countries, cash transfers can be used to build economic resilience. This study examines the effects of unconditional cash transfers on asset accumulation among low‐income households in rural Northern Uganda. Using a quasi‐experimental design and cross‐sectional survey data, we estimate differences in household asset accumulation between transfer recipients and non‐recipients. Asset accumulation was measured using self‐reported monetary values of land and buildings, livestock, electronics and communication equipment, transport means, furniture, and power sources. Results show substantial positive effects, with an estimated average treatment effect on total asset value of UGX 8,967,195/USD 2315. The largest increases appear in land and buildings and livestock, while smaller but statistically significant increases occur in electronics and communication equipment, transport means, furniture, and power sources. Effects appear stronger among male‐headed households and those with married or cohabiting household heads. The findings suggest that unconditional cash transfers can support asset accumulation and household economic security. We recommend expanding predictable unconditional cash transfers with additional gender‐sensitive support measures. Our findings contribute to the growing but scanty evidence that unconditional cash transfers can have positive effects beyond meeting the immediate consumption needs.
ABSTRACT Rapid urbanisation and persistent socio‐economic inequality continue to entrench multidimensional poverty within South Africa's urban informal settlements, with women and female‐headed households experiencing disproportionate deprivation. This study analysed primary household survey data collected in 2023 from 322 households across three informal settlements in Tshwane (Pretoria) using an adapted South African Multidimensional Poverty Index (SAMPI) framework to examine gendered patterns of poverty. The findings indicate that 78 per cent of households were multidimensionally poor, with an average intensity of deprivation of 49 per cent, reflecting deep and overlapping deficits in living standards, education, and employment‐related outcomes. Clear spatial disparities were evident across the settlements. Olievenhoutbosch recorded the lowest Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) value of 0.347, while Nellmapius exhibited the highest MPI at 0.409, signalling more severe and concentrated deprivation. Gender‐based analysis further revealed that female‐headed households consistently experienced higher levels of multidimensional poverty compared to male‐headed households, underscoring persistent structural inequalities linked to labour market exclusion, caregiving burdens, and limited access to productive assets. The findings call for integrated urban policies that prioritise gender‐responsive service delivery, targeted livelihood support, and improved access to housing, education, and employment opportunities within informal settlements to reduce multidimensional poverty.
