Educational and occupational mobility across generations in India: social and regional dimensions

Educational and Occupational Mobility is a cherished dream for all groups of people, more so for those who are at the bottom rungs of society. However, it is often seen that upward mobility is concentrated among the socially well-offs leading to divergence in educational attainment and occupational levels. Such divergence is reflected in earning capabilities as well, thereby aggravating the problems of economic and social inequality. The present paper examines the extent of intergenerational mobility in both educational and occupational attainments for diverse social groups in India to understand the inertia of inequality. A regional dimension is also explored to examine whether patterns are similar or otherwise across the country. Results indicate strong intergenerational stickiness in both educational achievement and occupational distribution among the backward social groups. Occupational mobility is lower than educational mobility indicating that educational progress is not being transformed to occupational improvement and brings up the possibility of discrimination in the labour market. Regional disparities in mobility levels indicate that states in India have had different social processes in force.