Person:
Das, Maitreyi Bordia

Trust Funds and Partner Relations, Development Finance (DFi)
Profile Picture
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Demography, Social Protection, Social Development, Human Development, Social Inclusion, Safety Nets, Equity, Labor Markets, Urban Development
Degrees
ORCID
Departments
Trust Funds and Partner Relations, Development Finance (DFi)
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).

Filters

2012 - 20194
Browse document type tree
Reset filters

Settings

Statistics
Citations
Author: Mehta, Soumya Kapoor ×

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Poverty and Social Exclusion in India: Dalits
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012) Mehta, Soumya Kapoor; Das, Maitreyi Bordia
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Poverty and Social Exclusion in India: Overview
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012) Mehta, Soumya Kapoor; Das, Maitreyi Bordia
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Does Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Cities
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-02) Mehta, Soumya Kapoor; Das, Maitreyi Bordia; Zumbyte, Ieva; Sasmal, Sanjeev; Goyal, Sangeeta
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Poverty and Social Exclusion in India: Women
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012) Mehta, Soumya Kapoor; Das, Maitreyi Bordia
    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.