Is Caste Destiny? Occupational Diversification among Dalits in Rural India

Gang, Ira N.; Sen, Kunal; Yun, Myeong Su

doi:10.1057/s41287-016-0011-1

Cited by 23 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…See, for example,Krishna 2003; Jaffrelot 2003;Fernandes and Heller 2006;Kapur et al 2010;Béteille 2011;Gang, Sen, and Yun 2017;Kapur, Babu, and Prasad 2014. …”

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confidence: 99%

The Pursuit of Social Welfare

Kruks-Wisner¹

2017

World Pol.

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Who makes claims on the state for social welfare, and how and why do they do so? This article examines these dynamics in the rural Indian context, observing that citizens living in the same local communities differ dramatically in their approaches to the state. The author develops a theory to explain these varied patterns of action and inaction, arguing that citizen claim-making is best understood as a product of exposure to people and places beyond the immediate community and locality. This social and spatial exposure builds citizens’ encounters with, knowledge of, and linkages to the state. This in turn develops their aspirations toward the state and their capabilities for state-targeted action. The author tests the theory in rural Rajasthan, drawing on a combination of original survey data and qualitative interviews. She finds that those who traverse boundaries of caste, neighborhood, and village are more likely to make claims on the state, and that they do so through broader repertoires of action than those who are more constrained by the same boundaries. The article concludes by considering the extensions and limitations of the theory and the role of the state itself in establishing the terrain for citizen action.

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“…See, for example,Krishna 2003; Jaffrelot 2003;Fernandes and Heller 2006;Kapur et al 2010;Béteille 2011;Gang, Sen, and Yun 2017;Kapur, Babu, and Prasad 2014. …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pursuit of Social Welfare

Kruks-Wisner¹

2017

World Pol.

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“…While we find that multigenerational mobility for SC/ST and OBC in education has increased relative to General Castes, we do not find evidence of increased occupational mobility over the three generations for SC/ST/OBC relative to General Castes. Given the roll-out of affirmative action programmes in India since independence for the SC and ST, and for OBC since the early 1990s, the lack of progress on occupational mobility for these socially disadvantaged groups is a matter of policy concern, especially given the high prevalence of poverty among the SC and ST in particular (Gang et al 2017). Finally, we find that the role of location is equivocal, with more occupational mobility seen for urban residents compared to rural residents over three generations, but less mobility when it comes to education.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A key feature of the ISCO occupational schema is the use of skill requirements as the main principle guiding occupational rank (e.g., Armstrong 1972;Ganzeboom and Treiman 1996). In the Indian context, the translation of skill requirements into occupational status is made more intricate by caste (Gang et al 2017). Independently of the skill requirements of their traditional, caste-based occupations, SC individuals are, for example, likely to have low social status.…”

Section: Occupationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The youngest age of the sons in our sample is 18 and the oldest age is 75. This implies that we are able to follow our three generations from around 1913 to 2012, a period that saw significant economic, political, and social change in India, including the onset of radical economic reforms in 1991, and the launch of major affirmative action programmes for the SC, ST, and OBC (Gang et al 2017). 3 Using this large time span of our data and estimates of intergenerational correlations in education and occupation for parent-son pairs relative to grandfather-father pairs, we are able to ask the following two questions: (1) has intergenerational persistence in education and occupation weakened over time in India?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multigenerational mobility in India

Kundu

Sen

2021

WIDER Working Paper

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Most studies of intergenerational mobility focus on adjacent generations, and there is limited knowledge about multigenerational mobility—that is, status transmission across three generations. We examine multigenerational educational and occupational mobility in India, using a nationally representative data set, the Indian Human Development Survey, which contains information about education and occupation for three generations. We find that mobility has increased over generations for education, but not for occupation. We also find that there are stark differences across social groups, with individuals belonging to socially disadvantaged communities in India lagging behind in social progress. Multigenerational mobility for Muslims in education and occupation have decreased in comparison to Hindus over the three generations. While we find that there is an increase in educational mobility for other disadvantaged groups such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes compared to General Castes, we do not find evidence of increased occupational mobility over the three generations.

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“…Agricultural labour in India has the highest poverty rates among all occupational groups (Gang et al 2008) and lower castes in India's social hierarchy of labour are over-represented in this occupational group (Vaid 2012). This relationship between castes and specific occupations can be traced back to the jajmani system: a system of hereditary patron-client relationships between landed proprietors from the upper and middle castes and the bonded agricultural labourers from lower castes (Gang et al 2016;Dumont 1970;Bayly 1999). Despite the reduction in the incidence of the worst forms of bonded labour and other coercive practices, the hereditary nature of the link between caste and occupation, especially in the lower rungs of the caste system, still persists in Indian society.…”

Section: Application To the Indian Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%