QUANTIFYING THE LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENTAL IMPACT OF ACCESS TO EDUCATION

Education is widely recognized as a fundamental driver of long-term socioeconomic development, yet empirical evidence linking historical access to education with present-day development outcomes at a localized level remains limited, particularly in rural India. This study examines the long-term developmental impact of access to education by analyzing village level data from Karnataka using the Socioeconomic High-Resolution Rural-Urban Geographic (SHRUG) dataset. Historical indicators of educational access and infrastructure from the 1991 Census of Indiasuch as the number of schools, school electrification, and primary school enrolment are compared with contemporary development outcomes from the 2020 Mission Antyodaya survey, including electricity access and other human development linked indicators. The analysis employs descriptive statistics, difference-in-means tests, and regression techniques to assess the relationship between early educational access and long-term development outcomes.The findings indicate that while the mere presence of schools and enrollment levels show limited long-term effects, the quality of educational infrastructure particularly access to electricity in primary school sexhibits a statistically significant association with improved development outcomes decades later. These results highlight the importance of prioritizing educational infrastructure quality in rural development strategies and underscore the role of early educational investments in shaping sustained and inclusive development.