Intergenerational Mobility in Educational and Occupational Attainment: A Comparative Study of Social Classes in India

Disparities between social groups transcend the boundary of current generation and perpetuate 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. This paper examines the extent of intergenerational mobility in both educational and occupational attainments for diverse social groups in India to understand the inertia of disparities 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 bringing up the possibility of discrimination in the labour market. This also brings to the fore the fact that historical social exclusion has had a long-run effect and the inertia is quite strong.