Outcome measures
Our primary endpoint is women’s empowerment. We adopted the conceptual approach of Kabeer [
8,
9,
24], which incorporates both the personal and political dimensions of empowerment, and developed indicators that captured “women’s sense of self-worth and identity, their willingness to question their own subordinate status, their control over their own lives, and their voice and influence within the family” [
8]. We constructed indicators of empowerment, adapted from the Indian National Family Health Survey [
25] whenever possible to facilitate comparability, which encompassed four domains: (1) decision making within the family and control over income (e.g., who decides how the money you earn will be used: mainly you, mainly your husband, or you and your husband jointly?); (2) freedom of movement in the public domain (e.g., are you usually permitted to go to the following places—for example, a market within the village—to buy things: on your own, only if someone accompanies you, or not at all?); (3) participation in community and public life (e.g., are you a member of any type of association, group or club which holds regular meetings?); (4) and views and attitudes on critical gender issues (e.g., please tell me if you agree or disagree with each statement: A married woman should be allowed to work outside the home if she wants to). We plan to test the reliability of empowerment measures during the second survey wave.
We will also measure the primary mechanisms hypothesized to link access to daycare to women’s empowerment, including time use, economic opportunity, economic status, and mental health and well-being.
Use of time was measured using a structured questionnaire, adapted from a study by Beaman et al. (2012) [
26], that asked respondents whether they spent any time in the past 24 h on specific activities (e.g., gathering fuel or firewood), how much time they spent on each activity, and whether this amount reflected the usual amount of time spent on the activity. The questionnaire also asks whether respondents were paid in cash or in-kind for the activities they engaged in.
We asked about employment experiences, including whether respondents work, their occupation, the type of work, the quantity of work, whether they are paid for their work in cash or in-kind, and what they do with their children while working. Respondents reported the household income received in the past 12 months from various categories (e.g., agricultural income, business income, rents, remittances, government payments). Household wealth is measured using a series of questions about ownership of specific assets (e.g., telephone, bicycle, radio), environmental conditions (e.g., type of water source, sanitation facilities), and housing characteristics, (e.g., number of rooms, materials used for housing construction). Additionally, respondents are asked about savings accounts held by household members, including for each account the type of account, its purpose, the total value, and whether the respondent can use the account to make purchases.
Symptoms of common mental disorders (CMD) are being assessed using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) developed by Goldberg [
27]. The GHQ-12 produces results that are similar to the longer version of the GHQ and has been found to be a valid screening instrument for CMD in diverse settings [
28]. To the best of our knowledge, validation studies have not been conducted among women living in Rajasthan. However, the GHQ-12 demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity in a validation study conducted in Goa, India using a cutoff score of 5/6 [
29], a sample of primary care patients in Tamil Nadu using a cutoff score of 2/3 [
30], and a sample of ethnic Indian women living in the United Kingdom using a cutoff score of 2/3 [
31]. We used the Hindi version of the GHQ-12 translated by Gautam et al. [
32].
We asked mothers about the health of their children under the age of six. We asked about their child’s immunization coverage, including Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), Diptheria-Tetanus-Pertussis (DTP), hepatitis, measles, and polio vaccines. We also asked about the occurrence of specific symptoms over the past month, including fever, persistent cough, diarrhea, broken bones, cuts, or burns. Additionally, we measured child length/height and weight using standardized techniques and this information will be used to derive children’s length/height-for-age, weight-for-age, weight-for-length/height, and body mass index (BMI)-for-age using the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards [
33].
Other covariates
Other covariates included socio-demographic characteristics, including respondent’s age, educational attainment, religion, caste, and marital status. We asked the respondent to report the following information for all children in the household who were less than eighteen years of age: literacy, enrollment in school, time spent in school in the prior year, highest level of education completed. For children not enrolled in school we asked about why they were not in school and their main occupation. Additionally, we asked about the husband of married respondents, including their age, educational attainment, and occupation.