Occupational and Educational Mobility Among Indian Muslims: Primary Survey-Based Evidence

Abstract

Based on information obtained from 590 father–son pairs as part of the primary survey, this article discusses the issue of occupational and educational mobility among Indian Muslims. Intergenerational occupational and educational mobility and aggregate mobility measures have been analysed using mobility matrices. It uses a linear regression for education mobility and a multinomial logit model for occupational mobility to analyse the potential variables that are likely to influence sample households’ educational and occupational choices. The key finding is that educational mobility is much greater than occupational mobility and that half of the sons adhere to their fathers’ occupational categories. The results further show that the father’s occupation has a strong influence on the son’s educational achievement. It is recommended that the home, societal, peer pressure and the surroundings all be used to improve the educational outcome of the children. This study exhibits that Muslims’ perceptions of discrimination are substantially higher than their actual experiences, which stress the need for significantly improving communication between the government, NGOs, political parties and Muslim community leaders.