The Cost of Being ‘Backward’ in India: Socio-religious Discrimination in the Labour Market

2021 ◽  
pp. 097370302110296
Author(s):  
Soumyajit Chakraborty ◽  
Alok K. Bohara

Being from backward castes, classes and Muslims in India has an economic cost associated with the nature of institutional discrimination. Using the 2011–2012 National Sample Survey data, this study identifies that caste and religion still rule the modern Indian labour market. We find that discrimination is evident in the socio-religious earnings gaps. While the parametric decompositions suggest that most of these gaps are due to differential human capital endowment, the nonparametric method almost evenly attributes inequality to discrimination and endowment. The results presented in this study suggest that discrimination against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Muslims and Other Backward Classes should be included in policy designs to promote equity in the Indian labour market.

Author(s):  
Nitin Bisht ◽  
Falguni Pattanaik

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 prioritizes active engagement of youth in achieving the targets. Aligning the pathway towards achieving youth specific SDGs (Target 4.4 and 8.5), the study examines the current situation of the youth labour market in India. For this purpose, the study analyzes National Sample Survey data on employment and unemployment from 50th round (1993/94) to 68th round (2011/12). The study engages trend analysis of key indicators of labour market. Logistic regression is applied to address the magnitude of socio-economic and demographic determinants on youth employment. The study finds an overall decline in the employment status of youth despite the ongoing demographic dividend phase. Postgraduate and graduate youth witness the highest unemployment indicating a grim role of labour market in engaging the educated youth. The findings raise concern for achieving the targets of SDGs, as a high share of educated youth strives for decent and gainful employment.


2013 ◽  
Vol 04 (02) ◽  
pp. 1350007 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. KAVI KUMAR ◽  
BRINDA VISWANATHAN

While a wide range of factors influence rural–rural and rural–urban migration in developing countries, there is significant interest in analyzing the role of agricultural distress and growing inter-regional differences in fueling such movement. This strand of research acquires importance in the context of climate change adaptation. In the Indian context, this analysis gets further complicated due to the significant presence of temporary migration. This paper analyzes how weather and its variability affects both temporary and permanent migration in India using National Sample Survey data for the year 2007–2008. The paper finds that almost all of the rural–urban migrants are permanent. Only temperature plays a role in permanent migration. In contrast, many temporary migrants are rural–rural and both temperature and rainfall explain temporary migration.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Banuru Muralidhara Prasad ◽  
Jaya Prasad Tripathy ◽  
V. R. Muraleedharan ◽  
Jamhoih Tonsing

Introduction: One of the targets of the END-TB strategy is to ensure zero catastrophic expenditure on households due to TB. The information about household catastrophic expenditure is limited in India and, therefore difficult to monitor. The objective is to estimate household and catastrophic expenditure for Tuberculosis using national sample survey data.Methods: For arriving at out-of-pocket expenditure due to tuberculosis and its impact on households the study analyzed four rounds of National Sample Survey data (52nd round-1995–1996, 60th round-2004–2005, 71st round-2014–15, and 75th round 2017–2018). The household interview survey data had a recall period of 365 days for inpatient/ hospitalization and 15 days for out-patient care expenditure. Expenditure amounting to >20% of annual household consumption expenditure was termed as catastrophic.Results: A 5-fold increase in median outpatient care cost in 75th round is observed compared to previous rounds and increase has been maximum while accessing public sector. The overall expense ratio of public v/s private is 1:3, 1:4, 1:5, and 1:5, respectively across four rounds for hospitalization. The prevalence of catastrophic expenditure due to hospitalization increased from 16.5% (52nd round) to 43% (71st round), followed by a decline to 18% in the recent 75th round.Conclusion: Despite free diagnostic and treatment services offered under the national program, households are exposed to catastrophic financial expenditure due to tuberculosis. We strongly advocate for risk protection mechanisms such as cash transfer or health insurance schemes targeting the patients of tuberculosis, especially among the poor.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajaya Kumar Naik ◽  
Nitin Tagade

This article examines the inequality and poverty across socio-religious groups in Maharashtra. It also examines the relative strength of factors affecting inequality and poverty and decomposes the differences in income between scheduled castes (SCs) and Hindu high castes (HHCs) based on the 68th National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey on consumption expenditure. The results show that consumption expenditure is substantially low among marginalised communities leading to high inter-group inequality. The relative strength of the factors affecting earnings across socio-religious groups shows that the overall inter-group disparities are due to inter-caste differences in the rates of return on assets, asset ownership and caste identity. Also, poverty reducing factors, such as ownership of agricultural land, non-farm enterprises/business and education, impact differently in reducing poverty, their relative impact in reducing poverty being less for schedule tribes (ST) and SC compared to OBC and high caste. Due to high education and greater ownership of capital assets by high caste, they have significant higher income and low poverty levels compared to Hindu other backward castes (HOBC), SC and ST and Muslim.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-331
Author(s):  
Anjan Ray Chaudhury ◽  
Madhabendra Sinha

According to the neoclassical economists, discrimination exists in the labour market if employers treat two equally qualified and skilled persons differently based on gender, race, age, disability, religion, caste, etc. In this article, we attempt to look at discrimination in the Indian labour market by applying the multinomial probit model of regression to the National Sample Survey Office data set. By taking years of schooling (as an indicator of skill and ability) as an independent variable in the model, we find that identically educated persons from different caste and gender groups are not equally likely to achieve similar occupational status, indicating the existence of discrimination in the Indian labour market. JEL Classifications: I31, C31


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Veenapani Rajeev Verma ◽  
Umakant Dash

Abstract Background Health outcomes in India are characterized by pervasive inequities due to deeply entrenched socio-economic gradients amongst the population. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate these systematic disparities in health, however, evidence of inequities does not commensurate with its policy objectives in India. Thus, our paper aims to examine the magnitude of and trends in horizontal inequities in self-reported morbidity and untreated morbidity in India over the period of 2004 to 2017–18. Methods The study used cross-sectional data from nationwide healthcare surveys conducted in 2004, 2014 and 2017–18 encompassing sample size of 3,85,055; 3,35,499 and 5,57,887 individuals respectively. Erreygers concentration indices were employed to discern the magnitude and trend in horizontal inequities in self-reported morbidity and untreated morbidity. Need standardized concentration indices were further used to unravel the inter-regional and intra-regional income related inequities in outcomes of interest. Additionally, regression based decomposition approach was applied to ascertain the contributions of both legitimate and illegitimate factors in the measured inequalities. Results Estimates were indicative of profound inequities in self-reported morbidity as inequity indices were positive and significant for all study years, connoting better-off reporting more morbidity, given their needs. These inequities however, declined marginally from 2004(HI: 0.049, p< 0.01) to 2017–18(HI: 0.045, P< 0.01). Untreated morbidity exhibited pro-poor inequities with negative concentration indices. Albeit, significant reduction in horizontal inequity was found from 2004(HI= − 0.103, p< 0.01) to 2017–18(HI = − 0.048, p< 0.01) in treatment seeking over the years. The largest contribution of inequality for both outcomes stemmed from illegitimate variables in all the study years. Our findings also elucidated inter-state heterogeneities in inequities with high-income states like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal evincing inequities greater than all India estimates and Northeastern states divulged equity in reporting morbidity. Inequities in untreated morbidity converged for most states except in Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh where widening of inequities were observed from 2004 to 2017–18. Conclusions Pro-rich and pro-poor inequities in reported and untreated morbidities respectively persisted from 2004 to 2017–18 despite reforms in Indian healthcare. Magnitude of these inequities declined marginally over the years. Health policy in India should strive for targeted interventions closing inequity gap.


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