Parvaaz: When Evidence Takes Flight

Kristina Hallez (Senior Research Manager, Health & Psychology, CEGA) and Madeline Duhon (Associate Director of Research and Policy, CEGA) describe the launch of a Parvaaz, new initiative focused on applying behavioral insights to social and economic challenges in India.

Parvaaz means “to take flight,” a name that reflects a simple but powerful idea: solutions that truly work have the power to help people rise above their challenges, and help economies take flight. Newly launched at CEGA, Parvaaz is an impact-focused initiative that applies insights from behavioral science to design, test, and scale programs that improve education, employment, and health and well-being across India. What sets Parvaaz apart is its explicit focus on testing interventions and bringing them to scale—working collaboratively with governments and implementing organizations to translate evidence into action.

A Distinctive Approach: From Insight to Impact at Scale

Parvaaz is grounded in a rigorous, end-to-end approach: 

1. Identifying challenges: We begin by identifying pressing economic and social challenges alongside government and implementing partners.
2. Designing solutions: We draw on behavioral science to design innovative, context-specific solutions.
3. Evaluating success: These solutions are then tested and evaluated, ensuring that decisions are guided by evidence rather than assumptions.
4. Scaling successful solutions: By collaborating closely with governments and large implementing partners, we focus on bringing the most effective solutions to scale, where they can inform policy and reach millions of people.

Core Focus Areas: Investing in People and the Future

Parvaaz builds economic opportunity and invests in future generations in India across three core areas: education, employment and labor markets, and health and well-being. Across each of these domains, partnerships are key—enabling solutions to be both evidence-based and operationally feasible within real-world systems.

Health and Well-Being: Preventing Drug Addiction Among Youth in Punjab

One flagship example of Parvaaz’s approach is a large-scale drug prevention initiative targeting youth in Punjab. Our qualitative and quantitative research reveals how critical misconceptions may drive risky behavior (see Box 1). For example, using thousands of surveys, we documented that young people dramatically underestimate the addictive potential of heroin and overestimate the power of willpower to resist addiction—making them more willing to experiment with drugs.

To counter these misconceptions, Parvaaz researchers partnered with an internationally renowned filmmaker to develop a novel film-based drug prevention curriculum. The curriculum uses compelling, relatable narratives—real people sharing their lived experiences with drug use—to engage students and change false beliefs at the root of risky behavior. 

The results were striking. An evaluation involving nearly 10,000 students showed that participants were almost 30% more likely to believe that trying heroin even once carries a high risk of addiction, and nearly 50% less likely believe that willpower alone is sufficient to overcome addiction. Correcting these misconceptions may offer a powerful pathway for preventing future drug use. For more detailed information, see our policy brief here. 

Translating this evidence into action, the Government of Punjab has now scaled the program across all secondary schools in the state, reaching more than 750,000 students in over 3,600 schools in the first year alone.  Other states in India have also expressed interest in implementing this programming. This intervention is the first evidence globally of a program that can reduce the demand for drugs, offering potential for contexts far beyond India. 

In parallel, Parvaaz is also conducting a randomized evaluation across more than 400 vocational institutes in India to assess impacts on beliefs, drug use, educational progress, and employment—further strengthening the policy relevance of the work.

Education: Using Adaptive Technology to Improve Learning

Parvaaz focuses on scalable classroom-based solutions with demonstrated impacts on learning. Current work explores integrating structured practice time during school through low-cost, adaptive software on tablets. By aligning pedagogy, technology, and evidence, Parvaaz aims to support teachers and improve student learning outcomes in ways that can be adopted widely and sustainably within public education systems. More details on this ongoing work will be shared soon.

Employment: Preparing Youth for the Modern Economy

Parvaaz’s employment and labor markets work seeks to equip young people with the skills and human capital needed to succeed in a modern, global economy. This early-stage portfolio focuses on creating pathways to meaningful employment through skill development and opportunity creation, with an emphasis on approaches that can be scaled through public and private partnerships.

Collaboration at the Core

Parvaaz’s impact would not be possible without strong collaborators. Key implementing partners include J-PAL South Asia at IFMR and the Department of School Education and the Department of Technical Education and Industrial Training (both in Punjab), alongside the Fund for International Development, the Agency Fund, J-PAL’s Crime and Violence Initiative, J-PAL Post Primary Education Initiative, and other donors who provide essential financial support. Together, these partnerships ensure that Parvaaz’s work remains grounded in evidence, responsive to policy priorities, and capable of achieving impact at scale.

Parvaaz is guided by the academic stewardship of Supreet Kaur (UC Berkeley), Aprajit Mahajan (UC Berkeley), Namrata Kala (MIT), Kelsey Jack (UC Berkeley), and Gautam Rao (UC Berkeley), and the program support of Kristina Hallez and Maddie Duhon at CEGA. 

By combining behavioral science, rigorous evaluation, and deep engagement with policymakers, Parvaaz is helping proven ideas take flight—transforming research insights into large-scale solutions that improve millions of lives across India.