Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in Rural India: Evidence from Ten Villages

A. Bheemeshwar Reddy () and Madhura Swaminathan

Journal, 2014, vol. 4, issue 1, 95-134

Abstract: Given the relatively limited employment opportunities available within villages, the main vehicle for intergenerational occupational mobility for people in rural India is migration to urban or semi-urban areas. At the same time, since 69 per cent of India's population still lives in villages, it is important to examine and understand the level of intergenerational occupational mobility within villages themselves. This paper examines intergenerational occupational mobility among rural males in India using data from household surveys in ten villages in different agro-ecological regions of the country. The mobility matrix approach is applied to two father-son pairs: heads of households and their fathers and heads of households and co-resident adult sons. A four-fold occupational classification is used: big farmers, small farmers, skilled workers and persons engaged in business or salaried employment, and lastly, rural manual workers. The main finding of the paper is of low intergenerational occupational mobility in all ten villages, particularly among big farmers and rural manual workers. Intergenerational occupational immobility was higher among manual workers from Scheduled Castes than manual workers from Other Castes. Odds ratios showed that downward mobility from any occupation to that of manual worker was higher for Scheduled Caste men than men of Other Castes. The data strongly support the view that Scheduled Caste men who remain in villages are unable to move out of rural manual employment.

Keywords: Intergenerational mobility; occupation; caste; three-generational mobility; village; India; occupational mobility; mobility matrix; immobility. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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