Intergenerational mobility in educational & occupational attainment: a comparative study of social classes in India

Discrimination against specific ethnic groups transcends the boundary of current generation and perpetuates across future generations as well. This is manifested as low Intergenerational Mobility in terms of both Education and Occupation in developing countries in general, and among specific ethnic groups within those countries in particular. The present paper examines the extent of intergenerational mobility in both educational and occupational attainments for diverse ethnic groups in India to understand the inertia of discrimination prevalent. Results indicate strong intergenerational stickiness in both educational achievement and occupational distribution among the scheduled castes and tribes who have been discriminated against historically. 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. This also brings to fore the fact that historical discrimination and social exclusion have had a long run effect and the inertia is quite strong.