ABSTRACT
Since 1990s, access to and participation in post-school education for all have grown manifold. These have also been accompanied by substantial structural transformation in the Indian economy and labour market, resulting in an emergence of newer and high-skilled jobs as well as occupations. And yet, there is a close correspondence between social stratification and occupational structures. The socioeconomically disadvantaged groups such as lower castes and Muslims continue to get disproportionately concentrated in lower rungs of employment and occupational structure as compared to the higher castes (Hindus). The under-representation of socioeconomically disadvantaged groups in good quality jobs and high earning occupations is often alluded to ‘attribute disadvantage’, that is relative lack of education among them. This chapter, using the recent rounds of NSS (nation sample survey) data, seeks to examine if the relative lack of access of socially disadvantaged groups to white-collar jobs/occupations is basically a function of their poor performance in qualificational space or the labour market is structured in such a manner that their academic achievement fails to get them the same reward in the labour market as it does to socially advantaged groups such as the higher castes.
