THE IMPACT OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE ON WOMEN'S EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT: EVIDENCE FROM INDIA

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) on the educational outcomes of women in India. Using data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), the study assesses whether exposure to CSA affects women's human capital formation. We employ OLS and Ordered Logistic regression to estimate the causal relationship, with the latter serving as a robustness check. The paper finds that CSA has significant adverse effects on education. Women exposed to CSA are approximately 8.7 percentage points more likely to have no formal education. However, they are about 4.5 and 5.7 percentage points less likely to attain secondary and higher education, respectively.

Keywords: Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA), Education, Human Capital Formation, India, Ordered Logit.