Person:
Das, Maitreyi Bordia
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Demography,
Social Protection,
Social Development,
Human Development,
Social Inclusion,
Safety Nets,
Equity,
Labor Markets,
Urban Development
Degrees
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
April 3, 2023
Biography
Maitreyi Bordia Das is the Director for Trust Funds and Partner Relations in the Development Finance Vice Presidency of the World Bank. Based in Washington DC, she leads the furtherance of the World Bank’s trust fund reform, implementation of the Bank’s policy framework for financial intermediary funds (FIFs) and supports the ongoing World Bank Group Evolution process. Maitreyi is a leading voice to sustainable development, equity and inclusion, with a career that spans government, academia, the UN system and the World Bank. At the Bank, Maitreyi has held several advisory and managerial positions and led numerous research, policy and programmatic initiatives across urban development, resilience, water security, health, social protection and social development. She was the World Bank’s first Global Lead for Social Inclusion, is a speaker at various public forums and has an extensive publications record. In her last position as Manager in the Global Practice on Urban, Resilience and Land, she oversaw and expanded a wide range of trust funded global programs and partnerships. Having started her career as a lecturer in St Stephen's College, University of Delhi, Maitreyi has also been a MacArthur Fellow at the Harvard Center of Population and Development Studies and an advisor to the United Nations Development Program in Guyana. She has a PhD in Sociology (Demography) from the University of Maryland. Before joining the World Bank, Maitreyi was in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
Publication Search Results
1 - 10 of 11
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Publication
Scaling the Heights : Social Inclusion and Sustainable Development in Himachal Pradesh
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-01)Himachal Pradesh has the reputation of being stable, inclusive, cohesive and well-governed and it stands apart in many respects from its neighbors in northern India. It has additionally, achieved remarkable growth, especially in the last two decades, which has been accompanied by very good human development outcomes. Despite being a predominantly rural society, educational attainment in Himachal Pradesh for instance, is among the best in the country; poverty headcount is nearly one-third of the national average; life expectancy is 3.4 years longer than the number of years an average Indian expects to live; and, per capita income is the second highest among "special category" states in India. Underlying its strong economic and social development outcomes is Himachal Pradesh's commitment to expand access to public services to the remotest areas, across tough, hilly terrain and its strong institutional foundations. Inter-group disparities are low in a state where traditionally disadvantaged groups such as the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) make up a solid 30 percent of the population. -
Publication
Social Inclusion in Macro-Level Diagnostics: Reflecting on the World Bank Group's Early Systematic Country Diagnostics
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-06)The idea of social inclusion has garnered considerable attention, especially in the context of two recent developments: the Sustainable Development Goals and the heightened attention to inequality. This paper reviews the manner and extent to which social inclusion is addressed in the first 17 Systematic Country Diagnostics (SCDs), which are ex ante, country-level assessments conducted by the World Bank Group, ahead of the preparation of its Country Partnership Frameworks. In addition to this primary purpose, the paper fulfils three other purposes. It allows for a broader reflection on the value of the social inclusion construct in macro-level diagnostics; it takes the opportunity to develop and refine a methodology to assess social inclusion and finally, it positions the narrative on social inclusion into the ongoing discourse on poverty, shared prosperity, inequality and the thinking around the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. It is therefore, a refined articulation of the idea of social inclusion in the context of global epistemological shifts -
Publication
Poverty and Social Exclusion in India: Women
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012)This brief describes the poverty and social exclusion of Women in India. The last few decades have seen remarkable progress in the status of women and girls, yet the cultural roots of gender inequality are still strong and affect a range of outcomes. The high salaries and independent lifestyles of women in urban India have captured public imagination. Yet progress has been very uneven and slower than would have been expected based on India’s levels of per capita income. Females still have an overall survival deficit in childhood and during their reproductive years and are severely disadvantaged in the labor market. Inequalities in wages are a disincentive for women to work, but they clearly want work!. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is an example of a program that explicitly seeks to provide paid work to poor women. The scheme mandates that at least one-third of workers should be women and makes several provisions to enhance the participation of women. Threats to women’s security also influence the ability of women to access markets and services and claim spaces for themselves. This is an area in which policy can have a huge effect. Making public spaces safe for women is a major step forward in enhancing women’s access to these spaces. -
Publication
Poverty and Social Exclusion in India: Dalits
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012)This brief is based on a Poverty and Social Exclusion in India.Caste is perhaps the oldest form of social stratificationin India.After independence, the Indian Constitution abolisheduntouchability and the erstwhile untouchablescame to be known as the Scheduled Castes(SCs).The situation of Dalits has undergone dramatic transformation over time.While caste has had significant implications for poverty and other welfare outcomes, this note focuseson two arenas—education and the labor market.Our analysis based on the National Sample Survey(NSS) data suggests that there has been expansion in education among Dalits, but not at the samepace as among the upper castes.Micro studies continue to document discrimination against SC students. In the labor market, Dalits remain largely in casuallabor. Education is considered a panacea to poor labor market outcomes and overall it has positive effects for all men.It would nevertheless be naïve to dismiss the changes in caste dynamics, more so over the past two decades. Attendant to the economic changes, social movements asserting the power of Dalits have swept some states and have given Dalits a sense of political voice and agency. In sum, we find that despite localized changes,there have been modest changes for Dalits in the aggregate. -
Publication
Poverty and Social Exclusion in India: Overview
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012)The report’s main objective is to track development outcomes for three select groups - scheduled tribes (STs), scheduled castes (SCs), and women - that have traditionally faced exclusion in India. It asks the question: how did these groups fare over a period of rapid growth in India, primarily in the nineties; and were they able to break through the historically grounded inequalities that have kept entire generations among them trapped or did traps trump opportunities? It focuses on exclusion along three spheres - services, markets, and voice and agency. Within these too, the attempt is to highlight a few select issues that offer new insights. The report draws both on national data (national sample surveys (NSS) and national family health surveys (NFHS)) as well as qualitative work for its evidence, relying more on the latter to probe heterogeneity within states and groups and incipient processes that result in exclusion. -
Publication
Poverty and Social Exclusion in India: Adivasis
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012)This brief describes the poverty and social exclusion of the tribal groups in India. Tribal groups or Adivasis are considered to be the earliest inhabitants of India. While India is widely considered a success story in terms of growth and poverty reduction, Adivasis in 2004–2005 were twenty years behind the average. Scheduled Tribes are often conflated with Scheduled Castes in the development literature, although they are completely different social categories. Physical remoteness and smaller numbers have gone together with political isolation and low voice in decision making for the Scheduled Tribes. There have been measures to assure defacto autonomy and self-rule to Adivasis, but implementation has been patchy. More discussion of tribal aspirations and problems from their point of view is needed, rather than an examination of such issues through the lens of policy makers, the bureaucracy, or the civil society. -
Publication
Does Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Cities
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-02)In discussing the inordinately low employment of Indian women in urban areas, several studies have argued that culture and attitudes have created a labor market that is inherently discriminatory. The unsaid corollary is that culture is slow and hard to change and so, women will stay out of the labor market until social change occurs. The empirical evidence on the role of culture is slim at best. This paper fills the void in the policy literature, as it assesses the relative role of culture, as signified by attitudes of employers, and firm characteristics in hiring women. The paper is based on a unique survey of 618 firms in three of the largest cities in the state of Madhya Pradesh (India)—Bhopal, Indore, and Gwalior. Using detailed descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analysis at the firm level, the hiring process, and attitudes toward male and female workers, the paper addresses the issue of culture and firm characteristics, while noting that the two are not necessarily in binary opposition. The results reinforce the conventional wisdom in some ways and are surprising in others. The most salient result is that employer attitudes matter much less for the chance that women will be hired, than do firm and location characteristics. This has significant policy implications, the most important of which is that female employment in urban India is amenable to policy intervention, and that it is not necessary to wait for culture to change. -
Publication
Results-Based Financing Through Social Enterprises: A White Paper for the Global Partnership for Results-Based Approaches, in Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-08-04)The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a global humanitarian crisis, putting both lives and livelihoods at risk. In the initial stages of the pandemic – especially in contexts where the state machinery was caught unawares or lacked capacity, or both, social enterprises (SEs) or socially-driven private enterprises – have been particularly active and have stepped up to provide relief. These enterprises will continue to be important as the pandemic stretches out, with recovery likely to be a long-drawn process. Since the Global Partnership for Results-Based Approaches (GPRBA) has a history of working successfully with SEs and other non-state private providers, the Partnership draws upon its significant experience and its partners' institutional capacity towards building productive partnerships with numerous SEs. To that effect, this White Paper is intended as an approach and guidance for GPRBA partners, World Bank task teams, and other actors who engage in Result Based Financing (RBF). It focuses on two overarching objectives, i.e., helping reduce the spread of COVID-19 cases and helping minimize the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic, especially on poor and excluded groups, that can be achieved by engaging SEs through an RBF approach. Additionally, it explores tools and mechanisms that could be used to substantiate results while taking into account the need to reduce in-person interactions in light of COVID-19. Lastly, building on the foundation of successful GPRBA projects, the paper provides an overview of the financing arrangements that can be utilized to collaborate with SEs. -
Publication
Social Inclusion: What Does It Mean for Health Policy and Practice?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-11)This paper applies the tenets of social inclusion to health policy and practice, arguing that achieving the goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) will be impossible without considering social and economic inclusion. The idea of social inclusion in the achievement of UHC goes well beyond a focus on local level interventions to an expansive notion that addresses the policy environment, social practices, and institutions. The paper summarizes ways in which social exclusion affects access to health services and health outcomes. It argues that social exclusion plays out through practices, processes, and behaviors of service providers, elites, and those most likely to be excluded. Such practices may permeate the structure and function of both formal and informal institutions. Through a discussion of the design and delivery of policies and programs, the paper highlights ways in which social inclusion can be advanced toward UHC. Finally, it draws from the experience of World Bank–supported interventions to highlight illustrative actions toward social inclusion in ways that can affect health outcomes. The expected audience of this paper are teams involved in the financing, design, and delivery of health programs, both within the World Bank and outside. The paper concludes with the exhortation to define the scope of “social inclusion” so that interventions can be targeted to those who are most likely to be excluded that interventions can be targeted to those who are most likely to be excluded. -
Publication
The Motherhood Penalty and Female Employment in Urban India
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-03)Since the 1990s, India has seen robust economic growth, rising wages, steady fertility decline, increased urbanization, and expanded educational attainment for males and females. But unlike other countries that have undergone similar transitions, urban women's employment has refused to budge, never crossing the 25 percent mark. This paper fills a critical gap in policy research on women's employment in India. The discussion is situated in the normative construction of motherhood and the gendered nature of caregiving in India. The analysis uses pooled data from six rounds of the National Sample Surveys to examine the effects of having a young child on mothers' employment in urban India over 1983-2011. The analysis also looks at household structure, and analyzes the effects of other household members on women's labor supply. The results show that although the onus of childbearing may have reduced, that of caregiving has increased. Having a young child in the home depresses mothers' employment, an inverse relationship that has intensified over time. Further, living in a household with older children and women over the age of 50 is positively associated with women's employment. These results show that the care of young children is an increasingly important issue in women's employment decisions, in a context where formal childcare is practically nonexistent. These results have significant implications for policy to raise women’s labor force participation in India.