Are caste categories misleading ? the relationship between gender and Jati in three Indian states

Shareen Joshi, Nishtha Kochhar and Vijayendra Rao

No 8109, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between caste and gender inequality in three states in India. When households are grouped using conventional, government-defined categories of caste the paper finds patterns that are consistent with existing literature: lower-caste women are more likely to participate in the labor market, have greater decision-making autonomy within their households, and experience greater freedom of movement. When households are grouped by the narrower sub-caste categories of jati, where caste is lived and experienced, the paper finds the relationships to be far more varied and nuanced. These results suggest that focussing on broad caste categories such as"scheduled castes"and"scheduled tribes"can be misleading for understanding the relationship between caste and gender, and for targeting anti-poverty programs.

Keywords: Gender and Economic Policy; Quality of Life&Leisure; Gender and Economics; Social Analysis; Gender and Poverty; Anthropology; Gender and Social Development; Economics and Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-06-22
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Working Paper: Are caste categories misleading?: The relationship between gender and jati in three Indian states (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8109

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