Now lets look at mobility in the Indian caste system
and how that mobility has increased in recent times
We'll consider the scheduled caste and tribes
groups which were formally defined in the Indian Constitution of 1950
Historically these have been disadvantaged groups in India
Researchers find that their educational and income mobility is converging
to levels for Non-Scheduled groups
For education we can ask what is the probability of an individual from
Scheduled castes or tribes changing the level of education across one generation
If we go back to 1983 that probability was 42%
In 2004-2005, that probability has gone up to 67%
To put that in perspective, compare it to the probabilities for
Non-Scheduled castes scheduled tribes
That Probability went from 57% to 67% What we can see is that by 2004-5 for
both groups it was 67%.
For the scheduled castes and tribes
the largest changes are movements out of illiteracy to being able to read and write
Now let's consider income specifically the medium wage premium
comparing the non-scheduled castes and scheduled tribes groups
to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes groups
As of 1983 the non-scheduled castes and scheduled tribes enjoyed a
median wage premium of 36%.
By 2004-5, that premium had fallen to about 21%
Just to put that into perspective that's smaller than the gap between
White and African-American incomes in the United States
We can also consider elasticity of income for the scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes groups. That is we're comparing now the children with respect to their parents
If the parents earn say an extra 1000 rupees a year
Over time how much more can we be expecting children from those families
to be earning
In 1983 that elasticity was quite high 0.9 That means that the incomes of the parents
are quite well predicting the subsequent incomes of their children
Yet by 2004-5 that elasticity had gone down to 0.55
For the non-scheduled castes and scheduled tribes that elasticity in 2004-5
is sitting at about 0.61
That means for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes the incomes of parents
actually have less predictive power for the incomes of children compared to the
non-scheduled castes and scheduled tribes That indicates rising income mobility
Overall for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes it can be said that
socio-economic mobility has been rising over the last 20 years
One Dhali business man put it quite well
He said "we are fighting the caste system with capitalism"
A Dalit activist put it is this way, quote "because of the new market economy
material markers are replacing social markers. Dalits can buy rank in the
market economy. India is moving from a caste based to a class based society.
Where if you have all the goodies in life and your bank account is booming you are
acceptable."
and indeed in India we are now finding millionaires coming from the more
disadvantaged groups typically rising up through small business.
Looking for the reasons of this partial convergence of fates I've already
mentioned economic reforms and also the freer economy in India
but it's not just that.
There's also been a strengthening of caste based networks and the lower castes now
have greater representation in politics
To read more on this fascinating topic well at the popular level there's that
New York Time's article referenced earlier but to take a look at the numbers and the
formal research there are two papers by Hnatkovska, Lahiri, and Paul and they are
here and they are both available online.