Socio-Economic Mobility and Health Disparities among Caste Groups in India

Bal Govind Chauhan, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), BMCC Road, Deccan Gymkhana, Pune – 411004, Maharashtra, India

Caste, class, and geography often overlap in the social context of the Indian scenario. Since caste is ingrained in human thought, caste discrimination eventually increases rates of poverty and illness. The prime aim of this study is to investigate the trends in changes in the socioeconomic, education, and working categories of different caste groups, and the secondary aim is to examine the health disparity among the caste groups in the last three decades. To fulfil the study objectives, NFHS-1 3 and 5 have been used. Descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and multinomial logistic regression have been used for data analysis. Concentration curves and indices have also been estimated to show health inequalities within and between caste groups. The finding indicates that although there is an improvement in the education, economic, and occupation levels among the lower caste group, yet the general caste consistently outperforms the SCs, STs, and OBCs. There is a reduction in undernutrition population-wide; however, SCs and STs groups still experience higher levels of malnutrition (stunting and underweight among Anemia and thin BMI among adults) compared to other caste groups.

Keywords: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Health and Morbidity, Comparative methods

See extended abstract.