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Tag Search: “caste”

Diversity and public goods: Why the geographical unit of analysis matters

Research has shown that regions with higher caste diversity have lower share of villages with essential public goods. This article challenges this finding and shows that empirical models estimated at ...

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Mental health disparities in India

While a large, multidisciplinary literature focusses on disparities in physical health across social groups, the mental health dimension remains invisible. Analysing data from a WHO survey conducted i...

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A permanent cordon-sanitaire: Dalits and Muslims in urban India

Near-perfect segregation and hierarchical ordering of residential space, based on caste or religious identity, is a well-known feature of rural India. Studies have also documented the persistence of s...

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Atrocities, murders, and untouchability: Measuring caste-based discrimination

How can we best measure inter-caste tension and discrimination in India? In this post, Victoire Girard highlights the limitations of using statistics compiled under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, w...

  • Perspectives

Does political reservation work, and for whom?

Does political reservation undermine or promote development, and for whom? This article presents an analysis of India’s Scheduled Areas, which reserve political office for the historically disadvantag...

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Does caste identity still matter for occupational choice?

In today’s India, to what extent do people avoid jobs solely due to their sense of caste identity? This article discusses an experiment in rural Odisha that involves offering one-day jobs to workers i...

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Coping with a policy shock in rural South India: Social networks as a determinant of trust

Trust and participation in social networks are inherently interrelated. This article identifies the determinants of trust in rural South India, where a mechanism of coping with shocks through transact...

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What the Swachh Bharat Mission did not change

On the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and 5th anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Coffey and Spears discuss findings from a field survey about changes in open defecation in rura...

  • Perspectives

Prevalence and evolution of dowry in India

Dowry payments are an important part of household finances in India, typically exceeding a year of earnings. This article analyses data from an all-India sample of over 70,000 marriages to document fa...

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Traditional hierarchies and affirmative action in a globalising economy: Evidence from India

India has had a long-standing policy of affirmative action to address deep-rooted caste inequities and discrimination. This article compares successive age cohorts of three broad social groups – Sched...

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The 10% quota: Is caste no longer an indicator of backwardness?

The Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill 2019 seeks to provide for the advancement of “economically weaker sections”, through 10% reservation in government jobs and higher educational institutions – a ...

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Learning to cooperate in a culture of honour

In many parts of the world, we observe persistent dysfunction in learning to cooperate around common interests. Cultural differences – ideas of what constitutes an insult and what an appropriate respo...

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