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Social exclusion and caste discrimination in public and private sectors in India: A decomposition analysis

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  • Singhari, Smrutirekha
  • Madheswaran, S.

    (Institute for Social and Economic Change)

Abstract

This paper provides an empirical analysis of caste discrimination in regular salaried urban labour market in India. A separate analysis has been done for the public and private sector workers because the affirmative action policy of India confined only to the minuscule of the public sector and excluded the vast private sector. We have used 50th, 61st and 68th rounds of Employment and Unemployment Survey data of NSSO in order to examine the wage gap between the forward-caste (others) and lower-caste (Scheduled Castes - SC) workers. The main conclusions based on decomposition methodology are: (a) the contribution of endowment difference to raw wage gap is more than that of discrimination. So expansion of educational opportunity can be a useful strategy to reduce such discriminatory treatment against SCs; (b) discrimination causes 19.4 and 31.7 percent lower wages for SCs in the public and private sectors respectively as compared to equally qualified forward castes (c) occupational discrimination-unequal access to jobs- being considerably more important than wage discrimination in both public and private sectors in India. The empirical findings provide strong evidence for the extension of Affirmative Action policy to the private sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Singhari, Smrutirekha & Madheswaran, S., 2016. "Social exclusion and caste discrimination in public and private sectors in India: A decomposition analysis," Working Papers 361, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
    • Handle: RePEc:sch:wpaper:361
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    Cited by:

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    2. Soumyajit Chakraborty & Alok K. Bohara, 2021. "The Cost of Being ‘Backward’ in India: Socio-religious Discrimination in the Labour Market," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 15(2), pages 252-274, August.
    3. Pallavi Gupta & Satyanarayan Kothe, 2021. "Interpreting the Caste-based Earning Gaps in the Indian Labour Market: Theil and Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis," Papers 2110.06822, arXiv.org.
    4. Satinder Singh & Jatinder Singh, 2022. "Employment Scenario in Indian Punjab: Some Disquieting Features," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 7(2), pages 158-179, July.
    5. Yasser Razak Hussain & Pranab Mukhopadhyay, 2023. "How Much do Education, Experience, and Social Networks Impact Earnings in India? A Panel Data Analysis Disaggregated by Class, Gender, Caste and Religion," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    6. Rahul MENON, 2021. "Determinants of inequality in Indian regular wage employment, 1993–2012," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(3), pages 477-500, September.
    7. Shiney Chakraborty, 2020. "Gender Wage Differential in Public and Private Sectors in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(3), pages 765-780, September.
    8. Satinder Singh & J. K. Parida & I. C. Awasthi, 2020. "Employability and Earning Differentials Among Technically and Vocationally Trained Youth in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(2), pages 363-386, June.
    9. Shiba Shankar Pattayat & Jajati Keshari Parida & Kirtti Ranjan Paltasingh, 2023. "Gender Wage Gap among Rural Non-farm Sector Employees in India: Evidence from Nationally Representative Survey," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 28(1), pages 22-44, June.
    10. Satinder Singh & Jajati K. Parida, 2022. "Employment and Earning Differentials Among Vocationally Trained Youth: Evidence from field studies in Punjab and Haryana in India," Millennial Asia, , vol. 13(1), pages 142-172, April.
    11. Tanima Banerjee, 2024. "Maginalised population concentration and employment gap in non-elementary occupations in India: a regional level study," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 26(2), pages 370-395, August.
    12. Ravi Srivastava, 2019. "Emerging Dynamics of Labour Market Inequality in India: Migration, Informality, Segmentation and Social Discrimination," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(2), pages 147-171, June.

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