Inequality of Opportunity in Indian Women

Akanksha Choudhary (), Gowtham T. Muthukkumaran () and Ashish Singh ()
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Akanksha Choudhary: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Gowtham T. Muthukkumaran: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Ashish Singh: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2019, vol. 145, issue 1, No 17, 389-413

Abstract: Abstract Inequality of opportunity (IOp) in any society is defined as that part of overall inequality which arises from factors beyond the control of an individual (circumstances) such as parental education, caste, gender, religion etc. and is thus considered unfair and is against the meritocratic values of a society. Hence, it needs to be controlled and compensated. We estimate the IOp in economic outcomes among Indian women by using the nationally representative India Human Development Survey 2011–2012. We include parental education, caste, religion and region of birth as circumstances. The overall IOp in income ranges from 18–25% and 16–21% (of total income inequality) in urban and rural areas, respectively. The corresponding figures for consumption expenditure are 16–22% and 20–23% in urban and rural areas, respectively. We also estimate the partial contributions of the circumstances to the overall IOp. We find that the parental education is the most significant contributor to IOp in urban areas, whereas, region of birth is the most significant contributor to IOp in rural areas. Fortunately, findings imply that socially and culturally imbedded factors like caste and religion which are more persistent do contribute to the IOp, but, the largest contribution is due to factors like parental education and region which can be relatively easily tackled and addressed with policy interventions.

Keywords: Inequality of opportunity; Indian women; Income; Consumption expenditure; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-019-02097-w

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