Impact Of Caste Research Articles

Dynamics of caste and early childbearing in India: a perspective of three decades

BackgroundEarly childbearing disrupts girls’ otherwise healthy growth into adulthood and adversely affects their education, livelihood, and health. Individual, sociocultural, economic, environmental, and health service-related factors contribute to childbearing among young females. In India, caste affects health outcomes despite several affirmative policies aimed at improving the health and welfare of the backward castes/tribes. However, there is a dearth of empirical evidence about the impact of caste on early childbearing, more specifically, regarding the trajectory of inter-caste disparities in early childbearing.MethodThis study used data from all five rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) in India to assess the association between caste and early childbearing over the last three decades. All women aged 20–24 [NFHS-1 (n = 17,218), NFHS-2 (n = 15,973), NFHS-3 (n = 22,807), NFHS-4 (n = 122,955) and NFHS-5 (n = 118,700)] were considered to create a pooled data set (n = 297,653) for analysis. Bivariate analysis and binary logistic regression were conducted using Stata (v17). ArcMap (v10.8) presented the caste-wise prevalence of early childbearing among the states and Union Territories (UTs).ResultsMany women continue to have early childbearing despite a considerable reduction over the last three decades from 47% in 1992-93 to 15% in 2019-21. Compared to NFHS-1, the odds of early childbearing increased by 15% in NFHS-2 and, after that, declined by 42% in NFHS-3 and 64% in NFHS-4 and NFHS-5. The inter-caste disparity in early childbearing persists, albeit with a narrowing gap, with the Scheduled castes (SC) remaining the most vulnerable group. Adjusting the effects of socio-demographic and economic characteristics, SC women had significantly higher odds of early childbearing (OR = 1.07, CI = 1.04–1.11) than those from the General caste.ConclusionTo decrease early childbirth, a focus on adolescent marriage prevention and increasing contraceptive use among young SC women is necessary. Strengthening ongoing programs and policies targeting educational and economic empowerment of the socially weaker castes/tribes will help in reducing early childbearing. Efforts to prevent early childbearing will accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-especially those related to health, poverty, nutrition, education, and general wellbeing, in addition to protecting women’s reproductive rights.

Decoding the Migration, Rehabilitation, and the Impact of Caste in the Lives of Bengali Dalit Women Strata in the post-Partition Bengal: Revisiting Kalyani Thakur Charal’s Autobiographical Narrative Ami Keno Charal Likhi, and Novella Andhar Bil

Based on the reading of Kalyani Thakur Charal’s notable autobiographical narrative Ami Keno Charal Likhi (Why I Sign as Charal,2016) and novella Andhar Bil (2016), this paper intends to analyze the experiences of second-generation Bengali Dalit women refugees in case of the post-Partition West Bengal. The present paper examines the tropes of nostalgia, partition, and rehabilitation as experiences of Bengali Dalit women characters in the post-Partition West Bengal, the notions of migration, remembrance, oppression, and injustice. Through a detailed analysis of both the narratives, this research article intends to explore how the intersectional dynamism of caste, and gender have impacted the experiences of Bengali Dalit women strata substantially. In majoritarian aspects Bengali Dalit women characters have been reduced to mute objects, stripped of their agency, subjecthood, and desires, from which these two narratives shift substantially.
 In case of the post-Partition scenario of West Bengal, the experiences of refugees from the different sections of the society are not a homogenized one. Kalyani Thakur’s narratives offer some valuable points for thinking about the differentiated experiences of migration, displacement, deprivation, and caste discrimination faced by Bengali Dalit women characters. Through her autobiographical narrative and the novella Andhar Bil, Kalyani Thakur also tries to portray how the intersectional dynamism of caste and gender has problematized the overall experiences of the Bengali Dalit populace in the post-Partition West Bengal. The researcher wants to argue that ideas like caste and gender both act as a site of oppression, which the grand narrative of the Bengal partition is primarily unable to capture. To develop this paper, the researcher consults literary, historical, and sociological facets of the Bengal Partition of 1947, Dalit identity, migration, and its effects on the Bengali Dalit population.

Impact of Religion and Politics in Bhabani Bhattacharya's Goddess Named Gold

the paper explores the factors and impact of caste, religion, and politics in the forth novel of Bhabani Bhattacharya's Goddess Named Gold, in which multi-factors of the consequence caused due to the corrupt system of caste, religion and misuse of political powers on the hands of currupt politicians of thier personal gains is depicted through the different characters who represent both the standard and privileged man of both rural and urban people of other places, regions, and sections of the society.

The impact of caste and religious background on participation in higher education: evidence from Uttar Pradesh in India

The impact of caste and religious background on participation in higher education: evidence from Uttar Pradesh in India

Impact of caste on the Indian labour market: What dostate-based studies indicate

Impact of caste on the Indian labour market: What dostate-based studies indicate

Hinduism, Critics of Hinduism and Revival of Hinduism in India’s Body Politic: An Exploratory Examination

Though nominally a secular state, under BJP rule, Hinduism in India has seen a greater prominence in politics and society than at any time in the post-independence era. As such, it is worthwhile examining how, in certain core aspects, Hinduism may affect the key variables of economic and social development. This is a neglected area that has largely been ignored by international institutions, especially by UN agencies and the World Bank. This exploratory paper provides some historical context and focuses particularly on the impact of caste on India’s body politic and development. It examines the arguments of those that suggest that Hinduism may have positive effects and those that suggest otherwise. It concludes by arguing that negative effects far outweigh any putative benefits.

Caste and Counselling Psychology in India: Dalit Perspectives in Theory and Practice

This paper is written from the perspective of a Dalit counselling psychologist and aims to provide an understanding of the exclusion of Dalit perspective in the theoretical as well as therapeutic domains of psychology as a discipline. It aims to elaborate on the impact of caste on the internalised-self of psychologist as well as their client and how it influences the whole process of learning as well as practice. It identifies the gaps in this field and suggests a revision and reformulation of its course and training programmes so that the closed doors can be opened for all. Further it addresses the various dyads of relationships in therapeutic alliance that can be possibly influenced by caste-based oppression in social life. The paper is highly concerned with the unaffordable and inaccessible nature of clinical settings and the persistent ignorance of the mental health concerns of Dalits. In this paper significant issues like the sense of disconnect, lack of dialogical spaces, and dehumanised processes have been explored in detail. Expressing the hope that there will be a possibility of revisiting and reformulation of theoretical orientations and philosophical frameworks, the paper calls for adequate attention towards the Dalit perspective in counselling psychology to envision egalitarianism in reality.

The Impact of Caste: A Missing Link in the Literature on Stunting in India

India is home to some 120 million children under the age of 5, 36 percent of whom are chronically malnourished. The associated high prevalence of stunting has generated a stream of research explaining why chronic malnourishment in India is higher than in poorer countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Surprisingly, this body of research has overlooked a crucial feature of chronic malnourishment in India – that is, the difference in stunting incidence across caste and religious groups. A comparison by social categories reveals that not only are the height gaps between social groups in India two to three times larger than the India–Africa gap, but that children from the socio-economically dominant group, the upper caste Hindus, are even taller than their African counterparts. We find significant caste gaps in child height in samples that are balanced on an extensive set of covariates. We also show that height gaps are higher in areas where discrimination is more prevalent. Our results suggest that incorporating considerations of caste is essential to understanding the problem of chronic malnourishment in India today.

Intergroup Inequality in Wealth Ownership in Rural India: Caste, Tribe and Religion

In India, the rural economy still remains crucially important in the economic wellbeing of the majority population. The low income and high poverty in rural areas are closely associated with unequal distribution of income-earning assets, particularly agricultural land and non-land capital assets. In this article, therefore, we try to understand the intergroup inequality in wealth ownership across caste, ethnic and religious groups in rural India based on the 2013 data from the All India Debt and Investment survey carried out by National Sample Survey Office. The results indicate high interpersonal wealth inequality so also the intergroup wealth inequality at the aggregate level and by type of assets in rural India. The impact of caste on the ownership of wealth clearly indicates high ownership among Hindu high caste and Hindu other backward caste at the cost of low wealth share or ownership of the SC/ST indicating the existence of graded inequality.

Assessing Linkage Between Community and Financial Inclusion in India

Financial Inclusion consists of the steps towards including vulnerable groups in financial services at an affordable cost. The present study is based on impact of caste and religion, taken as two independent Variables, on the number of accounts opened with the bank, keeping education as controlled variable. ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) is used for investigating the relationship. Data is collected randomly from 200 households of two villages of Madhubani District of Bihar. The results reveal that there is significant impact of caste and religion on number of bank accounts possessed by a household. Hence, the government should work for inclusive policy to cover entire strata of the society.

Influence of the conditions of casting and heat treatment on the structure and mechanical properties of the AlMg10 alloy

Purpose: Assessment of the possibilities of shaping the structure and improvement of mechanical properties of casting from AlMg10 alloy through a selection of casting technology and precipitation hardening. Design/methodology/approach: the work evaluated the impact of casting and heat treatment technology on the mechanical properties and structure of AlMg10 alloy castings. The tests were performed on 200 mm × 100 mm × 25 mm plate castings produced by gravity casting methods for sand and metal moulds and by a liquid state press moulding technology. Castings made with these technologies solidify in substantially different heat- evaporation conditions and exhibit varying degrees of primary structure fragmentation. Metallographic and strength tests were performed on raw castings and after heat treatment. Findings: The changes in the morphology and size of primary crystals and the dispersion of the reinforcing phase according to the casting solidification rate and the precipitation hardening treatment were analyzed. Solidifying castings in the form of sand show a globular structure, whereas in die and press castings, a typically dendritic structure occurs, with the dendritic crystals in pressed castings being much smaller in size than the die castings. In castings which were not heat-treated, the reinforcing phase of Al3Mg2 occurs in interdendritic spaces, and its dispersion increases with the rate of cooling. After supersaturation and ageing treatments, the phase α has a grain structure in all samples. The largest dispersion of reinforcing molecules is characterized by press castings. In a raw state, the highest mechanical properties are shown by castings made in the form of sand and the method of pressing in a liquid state. Heat treatment of AlMg10 alloy castings significantly influences the increase of mechanical indexes in all castings investigated. The highest features of Rm are approx. 330 MPa and A5 above 10% is obtained in castings made by the press method. Research limitations/implications: Particular attention should be paid to the avoidance of the effects of slag inclusion, shrinkage and magnesium oxidation during casting of AlMg10 alloys. In die castings of a plate type, due to own stresses, a significant decrease in mechanical properties occurs. Practical implications: The most advantageous mechanical properties of AlMg10 alloy castings are obtained by using liquid-state pressing technology. In addition, this technology makes it possible to produce thin-walled castings of high dimensional accuracy, high air- tightness, fine grain structure, lack of surface defects and low roughness. Originality/value: The paper presents the possibility of improving the mechanical properties of AlMg10 castings by applying heat treatment. It has been proven that the casting method has a significant effect on the mechanical properties of the castings.

“Impact of Caste on Empowerment of Women through Self Help Groups (SHGs) -A study in Anantapuram district of A.P”

“Impact of Caste on Empowerment of Women through Self Help Groups (SHGs) -A study in Anantapuram district of A.P”

Caste and Class

This article revisits the question of intersection of caste and class in India by employing the concept of cross-cuttingness. Using five rounds of the National Sample Survey, we find that disadvantaged groups are heavily concentrated in the lower economic class category and this pattern has changed only marginally over time. Results also show that disadvantaged castes possess smaller landholdings and mainly reside in rural areas, which offer less economic opportunities as compared to urban. These findings point that for some caste groups in India access to economic opportunities is still correlated with their caste, even after decades of affirmative action. However, an encouraging finding is that the impact of caste on education outcomes is progressively falling over time. This has the potential to lower the influence of caste on the attainment of future economic opportunities.

Patterns of social mobility and the role of education in India

This paper investigates the role played by education as a mediator of inter-generational social mobility in India. It uses a nationally representative data set (the National Election Study 2009) to describe and establish patterns of social mobility in India, and subsequently, to establish the role played by education with regard to this mobility. In particular, it attempts to test the ‘merit’ argument by analysing whether the effect of social origins (class and caste; along with locality and gender) on mobility and on gaining access to one class destination (where education is expected to be critical) has declined, and whether education plays a role. However, while the paper finds high rates of inter-generational stability, rural–urban disaggregation complicates the broader picture. The role of education is also key, especially for women. The paper finds that education plays an important role with regard to social mobility chances, but the effect of caste and class of origin remains significant. Focusing on one class destination – the professional class – once we control for education, the impact of caste seems to vary, while the role played by class of origin remains statistically significant. The implications of these patterns by gender and locality are discussed.

Parental Education as a Criterion for Affirmative Action in Higher Education

Affirmative action, in the form of reservation policies, to address the issues of inclusion has been in place in India for a long time. While its scope has enlarged with inclusion of new social groups, the efficacy remains a matter of debate. This paper explores if parental education is an appropriate criterion for affirmative action. Empirical results using three rounds of the National Sample Survey data suggest that parental education as a determinant of participation in higher education not only transcends the impact of caste, religious and economic status, it is also very attractive for the ease of implementation.

Impact of Caste on Entrepreneurial Initiatives in Pakistan

This study focuses on the nature and behavior of caste exists in Pakistan for considering Entrepreneurial Initiative as one of their traits. Since, Pakistan is a country where lots of myths are tied with castes; this paper aims to find the percentage of caste which is most likely to become an entrepreneur. This study also evaluates the overall potential of existing college graduates to become an entrepreneur. In achieving this, the research methodology is kept simple which is based upon quantitative analysis. The close ended questionnaires have been evaluated statistically and graphically using SPSS. The respondents of these questionnaires are scholars pursuing their Bachelors & Masters degree in business studies. The major focus has been on popular castes which include Syed, Rana, Shiekh & Malik. The results however depicts that people having caste Sheikh are found to be more motivated for taking entrepreneurship initiatives in their youth age, which somehow validates the point about Shiekhs being concerned about money as far as general public opinion in Pakistan is concerned. Also, this paper brings a very good output in terms of likelihood in Pakistani youth to become an entrepreneur, which can result in transforming this developing economy to a developed economy.

Caste and religious diversity on formation of social capital

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address the impact of caste and religious diversity on individual‐level social capital.Design/methodology/approachBased on the World Bank's field tested assessment tools, SOCAT, the field survey of the authors' study considers data related to most of the indicators of social capital. This study considers stratified random sampling method. The selection of four municipalities was done by purposive method and the data include information on 440 households from four municipal wards chosen from four municipalities of West Bengal. Out of four municipalities, two are most homogenous (Serampore) and most heterogeneous (Ashoke Nagar Kalyan Garh) along caste dimension and the other two are most homogenous (Purulia) and most heterogeneous (Santipur) religion based municipalities. Caste and religious heterogeneity are measured by an index of ethnic fractionalization, ETHNIC; the index calculates the probability that two randomly‐chosen individuals will not belong to the same group.FindingsUsing different measures of social capital, results of the analysis strongly support adverse effect of ethnicity on individual non‐structural social capital. The data set and results imply that for every dimension, the formation of social capital for each individual is higher among same (homogeneous) individuals along caste and religious dimensions in their social sphere. Moreover the level of structural social capital in the form of associations and cognitive form are lower than individual form of non‐structural social capital for each individual, irrespective of interactions between same or different (heterogeneous) types.Originality/valueThe study is important in that it tries to explore the impact of diversity along caste and religious dimensions on the non‐structural individual social capital, in an Indian context; whereas all the previous literature focuses on diversity along ethno‐linguistic and racial lines and most of these studies consider social capital at aggregative level.

Caste and religious diversity on human capital outcome: evidence from India

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the impact of caste and religious diversity on human capital outcome and external effect of ethnic capital on human capital accumulation process based on social fragmentation of West Bengal state which is mainly shaped under caste and religious lines.Design/methodology/approachA field survey was undertaken in which 440 respondents belonging to 440 households were interviewed in four municipalities of West Bengal – one each for most homogeneous and most heterogeneous along caste dimension and the equal number along religious line. For a cross sectional study during a one‐year period between January‐December 2006, this study considers stratified random sampling method (a mixture of both purposive and random sampling). In addition to construction of caste and a religion based fractionalization indexes, this study considers regression analyses of ordinary least square method in order to explore the stated objectives.FindingsIt suggests that more heterogeneous localities have lower outcome of per capita education after controlling the effect of per capita income. Moreover, the external effect of ethnic capital in heterogeneous localities has also lower outcome of human capital accumulation process.Originality/valueThe lower human capital accumulation in the heterogeneous localities along caste and religious dimensions might play an adverse effect on economic growth, crime, markets, technological breakthroughs and the arts and science. So, institutional measures by government and non‐government sources are needed to improve the stock of human capital, particularly in the heterogeneous localities influencing the positive impact on higher socio‐economic outcome in those localities.

Nestmate recognition for eggs in the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.)

Colony integrity is fundamental to social insects and is threatened by the reproduction of non-nestmates. Therefore, discrimination between eggs derived from nestmates and non-nestmates would constitute an adaptation to prevent exploitation of the entire cooperative group by unrelated individuals. The removal of nestmate and non-nestmate queen and worker-laid eggs was evaluated in honeybees using colonies of Apis mellifera capensis to test female and of A. m. scutellata to test male eggs. The data show that honeybees can distinguish between nestmate and non-nestmate eggs of both sexes. Moreover, non-nestmate female queen-laid eggs were removed significantly faster than nestmate female worker-laid eggs in A. m. capensis, indicating that nestmate recognition cues can override caste-specific ones. While the experimental manipulation accounts for 37.2% (A. m. scutellata) or 1.6% (A. m. capensis) of variance in relation to egg removal, nestmate recognition explains 33.3% for male eggs (A. m. scutellata) and 60.6% for female eggs (A. m. capensis), which is almost twice as high as the impact of caste (16.7% A. m. scutellata; 25% A. m. capensis). Our data show a stronger effect of nestmate recognition on egg removal in the honeybee, suggesting that cues other than caste-specific ones (viability/kin) can dominate egg removal behavior. In light of intraspecific social parasitism, preventing the reproduction of unrelated individuals (group selection) rather than preferring queens’ eggs (kin selection) appears to be the driving force behind the evolution of egg removal behavior in honeybees.

What the signboard hides

In India, there are strong and intimate links between traditional notions of caste, purity and pollution and the preparation and consumption of food. This article studies trajectories of social change within small South Indian eating places, popularly known as Udupi hotels. During the second half of the 20th century such enterprises absorbed a large number of unskilled migrants, mainly from Karnataka's coastal belt. We explore the relationship between caste and employability within the industry and the impact of caste on individual career progress. Combining case studies of enterprises from villages, small towns and cities with data from in-depth interviews with a sample of hotel workers, we argue that small South Indian eating places are elusive social arenas that can shed new light on the nature, persistence and change in caste-based exclusion in important markets for unskilled labour in modern India.