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Caste and Occupational Diversification in Rural India: A long-term analysis.

Koppa, Nisha Gurulingappa LU (2020) EKHS22 20201
Department of Economic History
Abstract (Swedish)
One of the characteristic features of Indian society is its complex caste system which ranks people into hereditary groups. Most importantly, the foundation of caste association was based on the occupation of each group. And the lowest group within this system have historically been excluded and exploited due to their assigned caste-based occupations. Despite implementing affirmative action policies, the low-caste group remains over-represented amongst the poor people. Given the historical and embedded relationship of caste and occupation, this study explores if this link has weakened especially since the 90’s when India adopted economic reforms which kick started high sustained growth in rural sector. Specifically, the study empirically... (More)
One of the characteristic features of Indian society is its complex caste system which ranks people into hereditary groups. Most importantly, the foundation of caste association was based on the occupation of each group. And the lowest group within this system have historically been excluded and exploited due to their assigned caste-based occupations. Despite implementing affirmative action policies, the low-caste group remains over-represented amongst the poor people. Given the historical and embedded relationship of caste and occupation, this study explores if this link has weakened especially since the 90’s when India adopted economic reforms which kick started high sustained growth in rural sector. Specifically, the study empirically examines the effect of caste identity as a determinant on occupational choice and if the marginalized low-caste group have diversified into better/high-paying occupations in the rural areas. For this, the study uses five-rounds of nationally representative quinquennial household survey data from 1987-2009. With household head as the unit of observation, the study employs a multinomial logit regression analysis to examine the questions. The results indicate that firstly, caste is a major determinant of occupational choice. And secondly, the study shows that there has been occupational diversification i.e. movement of low-caste group from low-paying occupations to better-paying occupations during the period of analysis. (Less)
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author
Koppa, Nisha Gurulingappa LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
Have the historically marginalized low-caste social group diversified into better occupations since liberalization i.e. 1990’s?
course
EKHS22 20201
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Caste, Occupational Diversification, Liberalization, Poverty
language
English
id
9024530
date added to LUP
2020-07-20 14:27:52
date last changed
2020-07-20 14:27:52
@misc{9024530,
  abstract     = {{One of the characteristic features of Indian society is its complex caste system which ranks people into hereditary groups. Most importantly, the foundation of caste association was based on the occupation of each group. And the lowest group within this system have historically been excluded and exploited due to their assigned caste-based occupations. Despite implementing affirmative action policies, the low-caste group remains over-represented amongst the poor people. Given the historical and embedded relationship of caste and occupation, this study explores if this link has weakened especially since the 90’s when India adopted economic reforms which kick started high sustained growth in rural sector. Specifically, the study empirically examines the effect of caste identity as a determinant on occupational choice and if the marginalized low-caste group have diversified into better/high-paying occupations in the rural areas. For this, the study uses five-rounds of nationally representative quinquennial household survey data from 1987-2009. With household head as the unit of observation, the study employs a multinomial logit regression analysis to examine the questions. The results indicate that firstly, caste is a major determinant of occupational choice. And secondly, the study shows that there has been occupational diversification i.e. movement of low-caste group from low-paying occupations to better-paying occupations during the period of analysis.}},
  author       = {{Koppa, Nisha Gurulingappa}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Caste and Occupational Diversification in Rural India: A long-term analysis.}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}