We investigate the impact of community power on the practice of untouchability in rural India. We model two-dimensional simultaneous group conflict over social norms, wherein an upper and backward (OBC) caste Hindu bloc contests the 'scheduled' castes (SCs) over the extent to which behavioural...

Entrepreneurial qualities and skills are essential for industrial development as well as eradication of poverty by means of creating self employment and employment to others. The Central and the State governments are trying their best for promotion of entrepreneurship among the economically...

Mandated political representation over the last twenty years has had a different impact on the reporting of crime by the low castes than what is observed for the reporting of crime by women. I exploit the timing of the implementation of mandated political representation of the low castes to...

This paper attempts to systematically look at the differences in wages earned between male workers belonging to various caste and religious identities in India, and how that has changed over time. I use data from seven different rounds of National Sample Survey (NSS) to investigate the wage...

In this paper, we conduct the novel exercise of analyzing the relationship between overall wealth inequality and caste divisions in India using nationally representative surveys on household wealth conducted during 1991-92 and 2002-03. According to our findings, the groups in India that are...

It is said that that India is at the threshold of a Dalit Revolution, dalits being the most marginalised people in India. This paper opens a debate on participation and poverty of dalits in India’s social and economic spheres by introducing the lens of ‘inclusion’ to arrive at a more...

Dalits are the perpetual victims of marginalisation and socio-economic exclusion. The word Dalit is derived from the root ‘Dal’, incidentally common to both Sanskrit and Hebrew. In both languages it has the same meaning i.e. weak, crushed, split open and trampled upon. The demand for SC...