Community Mobilization, Individual Agency and Neonatal Mortality: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Rural India

Abstract

It is widely accepted that maternal and neonatal survival rates can be improved by positive health practices and effective treatment seeking behaviour. When women have little individual agency however, their control over health practices and care seeking may be significantly curtailed. Using data from a randomized control trial of participatory women’s groups in rural India, we present evidence on the effect of community mobilization on women’s agency. Individual agency is compared between women who reside in areas randomly selected to participate in the intervention (treatment) and those who reside in other comparable (control) areas. To deal with potential reverse causality when measuring the effect of agency on health care practices we instrument agency with random program eligibility. We find that the intervention has increased individual agency. We also find that increased agency is one of the mechanisms through which community mobilization effectively improves care seeking behaviour and health outcomes.