Household access to water and education for girls: The case of villages in hilly and mountainous areas of Nepal

Figures & data

Table 1. Gender disparities in Nepalese education

	Enrolment rates (children aged 6–15)	Completion rates (people aged 16–25)
		Primary	Lower- secondary	Secondary
All Nepal	92.20	76.19	58.59	40.70
Urban
Boys	93.32	92.30	78.39	62.76
Girls	92.98	85.04	72.74	57.68
Rural
Boys	92.59	78.41	57.93	33.88
Girls	91.17	63.22	43.26	27.10

Source: Calculated by authors from Nepal Living Standards Survey 2010/2011 (NLSS-III).

Figure 1. The location of our survey sites.

Table 2. Household access to water in the study region

A. Mode of water collection from primary and secondary water sources ($N=2,642$)
Household water source
Directly from a natural water source	1,654
Not directly from a natural water source but from one of the following sources:	988
own well	86
public well	179
own storage	41
public storage	697
B. Summary of water-fetching activities (for households that carry water directly from the natural water source, $N=1,654$)
Hours spent in travelling to and from the source ($\mathrm{N}=1,645$)
# of water-hauling trips per day ($\mathrm{N}=1,645$)	4.00
# of 15-litre bottles carried at one time ($\mathrm{N}=1,616$)	1.36
Non-adult males ($19\ge \mathrm{a}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{e}\ge 10$) who engage in water fetching ($\mathrm{N}=1,166$)	0.14
Non-adult females ($19\ge \mathrm{a}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{e}\ge 10$) who engage in water fetching ($\mathrm{N}=1,114$)	0.28
Adult males ($\mathrm{a}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{e}\ge 20$) who engage in water fetching ($\mathrm{N}=2,405$)	0.19
Adult females ($\mathrm{a}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{e}\ge 20$) who engage in water fetching ($\mathrm{N}=2,236$)	0.76

Source: Calculated by authors from our original survey.

Figure 2. Net attendance ratio of children aged 4–18.

Source: Calculated by authors from our original survey.

Table 3. Summary statistics of main variables

	Obs.	Mean	Std.dev.	Min	Max
A. Analysis for children aged 6–16
Educational outcome
Current (last attended) grade	2,325	4.34	2.79	0.00	12.00
No. of repetitions	2,325	0.10	0.33	0.00	3.00
Water accessibility
Hours spent on water collection	2,325	0.52	0.39	0.00	5.97
Hours spent on water collection by Neighbours	2,253	0.53	0.37	0.02	2.06
B. Analysis for children aged 14–16
Educational outcome
Completion of primary educ.	638	0.82	0.39	0.00	1.00
Completion of lower-secondary educ.	638	0.32	0.47	0.00	1.00
Water accessibility
Hours spent on water collection	638	0.52	0.37	0.00	2.08
Hours spent on water collection by Neighbours	615	0.53	0.36	0.02	2.00

Source: Calculated by authors from our original survey.

Table 4. Balancing and correlation tests for the identification assumption

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)
	Balancing Test					Correlation Test
	HHs closer to natural water source than the median		HHs farther from natural water source than the median		(2)-(4)	Correlation with distance to natural water source
	Obs.	Mean (Std.dev.)	Obs.	Mean (Std.dev.)	Diff. [Std.err.]	Obs.	Coef. {P-value}
HH total income (10,000 NPR)	861	10.089	714	11.076	−0.987	1,575	0.006
		(13.699)		(13.969)	[0.700]		{0.809}
HH size	897	5.317	757	5.412	−0.096	1,654	0.002
		(2.156)		(2.262)	[0.109]		{0.940}
HH head’s age	887	44.165	751	45.254	−1.090	1,638	0.034
		(14.035)		(14.391)	[0.704]		{0.168}
HH head’s years of education	896	1.465	757	1.448	0.018	1,653	−0.018
		(2.853)		(2.964)	[0.143]		{0.475}
Mother’s years of education	630	0.748	542	0.705	0.043	1,172	−0.022
		(2.159)		(2.109)	[0.125]		{0.452}
House built within 10 years	892	0.348	753	0.335	0.013	1,645	0.021
		(0.476)		(0.472)	[0.023]		{0.398}
House built within 20 years	892	0.636	753	0.632	0.004	1,645	−0.012
		(0.482)		(0.483)	[0.024]		{0.635}
House built within 30 years	892	0.762	753	0.776	−0.013	1,645	−0.004
		(0.426)		(0.417)	[0.021]		{0.873}
Commute time (min.) to
primary school	441	27.551	386	29.083	−1.532	827	−0.025
		(17.901)		(16.193)	[1.194]		{0.481}
lower-secondary school	285	39.354	221	42.787	−3.433	506	0.060
		(22.249)		(26.031)	[2.149]		{0.180}

Source: Calculated/estimated by authors from our original survey.

Table 5. Impact on education: current (last attended) grade and repetitions [Children aged 6–16]

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
Dep. var.:	Current (last attended) grade	No. of repetitions	Current (last attended) grade	No. of repetitions	Current (last attended) grade	No. of repetitions
Water accessibility (hours spent on water collection):
	Household reported hours		Neighbours’ median hours
$\times$Boy (${\beta }_b$)	−0.038	0.078**	−0.021	0.065*	0.107	0.071**
	[0.115]	[0.034]	[0.183]	[0.034]	[0.185]	[0.033]
$\times$Girl (${\beta }_g$)	0.048	0.021	−0.047	0.021	0.046	0.022
	[0.132]	[0.035]	[0.165]	[0.030]	[0.166]	[0.029]
Neighbours’ characteristics	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Test for $H_0:{\beta }_b={\beta }_g$ (F-stat.)	0.338	4.738**	0.032	2.170	0.188	2.940*
Observations	2,325	2,325	2,253	2,253	2,238	2,238
R-squared	0.691	0.054	0.692	0.055	0.701	0.064

Note: This table reports only the coefficients of interest based on Equation (1)(1) $edu{c}_{ijs}={\beta }_b\left(w_j\times bo{y}_i\right)+{\beta }_g\left(w_j\times gir{l}_i\right)+{\mathbf{x}}_{ij}\gamma +{\delta }_s+u_{ijs}$(1) . All estimations control for fixed effects of age, gender, language, caste, survey month, ward (village), and other individual/household characteristics such as household size, age/gender/education of household head, education of mother, log of annual household income, and commuting time to primary school. Standard errors in brackets are clustered at the village level. ** Significant at the 5% level. * Significant at the 1% level.

Source: Estimated by authors from our original survey.

Table 6. Impact on education: completion of primary and lower-secondary schools [Children aged 14–16]

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
Dep. var.: Completion of	Primary	Lower-secondary	Primary	Lower-secondary	Primary	Lower-secondary
Water accessibility (hours spent on water collection):
	Household reported hours		Neighbours’ median hours
$\times$Boy (${\beta }_b$)	−0.067	0.149	−0.085	0.013	−0.061	0.028
	[0.087]	[0.128]	[0.067]	[0.125]	[0.065]	[0.132]
$\times$Girl (${\beta }_g$)	−0.162**	−0.001	−0.190**	−0.049	−0.172**	−0.041
	[0.070]	[0.069]	[0.079]	[0.060]	[0.083]	[0.071]
Neighbours’ characteristics	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Test for $H_0:{\beta }_b={\beta }_g$ (F-stat.)	1.205	1.090	1.417	0.289	1.494	0.352
Observations	638	638	615	615	610	610
R-squared	0.075	0.205	0.081	0.198	0.091	0.213

Note: This table reports only the coefficients of interest based on Equation (1)(1) $edu{c}_{ijs}={\beta }_b\left(w_j\times bo{y}_i\right)+{\beta }_g\left(w_j\times gir{l}_i\right)+{\mathbf{x}}_{ij}\gamma +{\delta }_s+u_{ijs}$(1) . All the estimations control for the covariates in Table 5. Standard errors in brackets are clustered at the village level. ** Significant at the 5% level.

Source: Estimated by authors from our original survey.

Table 7. Impact on household chores [Children aged 6–16]

	(1)	(2)	(3)		(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)	(10)
Dep. var.:	Water hauling		Child/elder/sick care			Cleaning		Laundry		All household chores
A. Sample mean
Boys ($\mathrm{N}=1,186$)	0.093		0.024			0.048		0.055		0.159
Girls ($\mathrm{N}=1,187$)	0.127		0.067			0.146		0.163		0.265
B. Coefficient estimates
Water accessibility (neighbours’ median hours spent on water collection)
$\times$Boy	0.006		0.024			0.047		0.040		0.098**
	[0.021]		[0.018]			[0.039]		[0.028]		[0.041]
$\times$Boy aged 6–9		−0.038			0.047*		0.046		0.059*		0.058
		[0.032]			[0.025]		[0.040]		[0.032]		[0.040]
$\times$Boy aged 10–13		0.018			−0.009		0.027		0.021		0.086*
		[0.033]			[0.019]		[0.042]		[0.033]		[0.050]
$\times$Boy aged 14–16		0.055			0.030		0.068		0.024		0.183**
		[0.068]			[0.028]		[0.054]		[0.045]		[0.088]
$\times$Girl	−0.014		0.018			0.033		−0.029		0.015
	[0.025]		[0.016]			[0.041]		[0.030]		[0.048]
$\times$Girl aged 6–9		−0.017			0.032		0.086*		0.081**		0.133**
		[0.038]			[0.021]		[0.044]		[0.033]		[0.065]
$\times$Girl aged 10–13		−0.035			−0.012		−0.020		−0.070*		−0.073
		[0.030]			[0.022]		[0.054]		[0.037]		[0.066]
$\times$Girl aged 14–16		0.019			0.048		0.052		−0.102		0.022
		[0.068]			[0.050]		[0.079]		[0.086]		[0.088]
Girl dummy	0.048**		0.047***			0.111**		0.147***		0.157***
	[0.020]		[0.016]			[0.047]		[0.033]		[0.045]
Girl aged 6–9		−0.012			0.036**		0.022		0.010		0.013
		[0.025]			[0.015]		[0.029]		[0.017]		[0.033]
Girl aged 10–13		0.063**			0.051*		0.135**		0.158***		0.210***
		[0.030]			[0.028]		[0.063]		[0.054]		[0.072]
Girl aged 14–16		0.113**			0.049		0.192**		0.310***		0.265***
		[0.047]			[0.031]		[0.072]		[0.065]		[0.066]
Observations	2,373	2,373	2,373		2,373	2,373	2,373	2,373	2,373	2,373	2,373
R-squared	0.118	0.123	0.072		0.075	0.142	0.153	0.184	0.210	0.210	0.219

Note: Panel A reports the sample mean of dependent variables and Panel B reports only the coefficients of interest based on Equation (1)(1) $edu{c}_{ijs}={\beta }_b\left(w_j\times bo{y}_i\right)+{\beta }_g\left(w_j\times gir{l}_i\right)+{\mathbf{x}}_{ij}\gamma +{\delta }_s+u_{ijs}$(1) , with engagement in household chores as the dependent variable. All estimations control for the covariates in Columns 5 and 6 of Table 5. *** Significant at the 1% level. ** Significant at the 5% level. * Significant at the 5% level

Source: Estimated by authors from our original survey.