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Employment, Exclusion and 'Merit' in the Indian IT Industry
Abstract
The Indian information technology industry is often represented as providing employment opportunities to a wider cross section of society than has been the case with other professional and white collar jobs. However, available data suggest that the social composition of the IT workforce is more homogeneous than is often supposed, in that the workforce is largely urban, middle class, and high/middle caste. The processes of exclusion that operate in the educational system and in recruitment, as also the ideology of "merit" in the context of elite opposition to reservation, create this relative social homogeneity in the IT workforce.
... However, the possible labour segmentation in the IT industry has the potential to undermine the social importance of this sector by exacerbating labour market inequalities in the country. Although, the IT industry is widely touted by employers as "caste-less" and "pro-merit" in the recruitment (Fernandez, 2018a;Fuller and Narasimhan, 2007;Shakthi, 2023;Upadhya, 2007;Vaghela et al., 2022), this claim lacks empirical test and there are increasing voices among disadvantaged sections alleging discrimination in this industry. ...
... The Indian IT sector stands out as one of the most productive, remunerative and esteemed among all service sector industries (Krishna et al., 2016;Nayyar, 2012;Upadhya, 2007). Contributing 7.5% to India's GDP and employing 5.4 million individuals (Statista, 2023), the sector has been extensively studied for its productivity potential, yet discussions on its employment composition remain largely unexplored. ...
... By adhering to merit-based practices, the sector refutes the existence of labour market inequalities within its workforce (Fernandez, 2018c). However, critics argue that the "pro-merit" stance is biased and exclusionary, as the criteria for merit may not be equal for all, considering disparities in access to education, opportunities, income and social capital based on castes (Fernandez, 2018a;Upadhya, 2007). The sector's failure to adopt affirmative actions for equitable social distribution of employment, disregarding India's socio-economic inequalities, has led to its characterization as "caste-blind" rather than "caste-less" (Fernandez, 2018c;Ramani, 2018;Shukla, 2022). ...
Purpose
This study investigates the caste-based disparities in employment probabilities and wage earnings within India’s rapidly growing IT industry, using insights from the labour market segmentation theory. Our theoretical conceptualization attempts to pin down the inaccessibility of marginalised sections of the population to the high productivity job market.
Design/methodology/approach
We rely on the National Sample Survey rounds of 2011–2012 and 2020–2021 to estimate employment probabilities and wage differentials using linear and logic regression models, controlling for educational attainments and other important determinants of individual’s job market outcomes.
Findings
The results indicate a significant −1.24 odds differential, even after considering education and other control variables. Notably, this disparity has increased since 2011–2012, with lower caste graduate pass-outs facing a mere 13% probability of IT sector employment compared to their upper caste counterparts at 41%. Further, our findings expose gender and rural-urban differentials, highlighting the vulnerability faced by females and individuals from rural areas. The wage analysis shows a 24% and a 22% earning gap for SCs and OBCs, respectively, which remain statistically significant even after controlling for educational attainments and employment arrangements.
Originality/value
This is first micro-level study that counters Indian IT sector’s claim of “castelessness” and “pro-merit”, identifying significant presence of labour market segmentation in the sector. The caste-based labour market segmentation has far-reaching consequences as it can perpetuate income inequalities and hurt industrial efficiency, stifling economic growth in the long-run. Concerted policy responses are imperative to eliminate structural barriers, ensuring equitable access to quality education and employment opportunities for marginalized sections of the society.
... In our study, we classify the roles of these principals as high-authority jobs, while the roles of their agents are categorized as low-authority jobs. Although the private service sector is often depicted as functioning purely on a meritocratic basis, numerous studies have provided compelling evidence to the contrary, demonstrating the persistence of non-meritocratic, caste-based practices within the labour market (Deshpande and Newman 2007;Jodhka and Newman 2007;Upadhya 2007;Dayanandan, Donker, and Saxena 2012;Subramanian 2015;Mosse 2018;Ramani 2018;Fernandez 2018a;Thomas 2020;Vaghela, Jackson, and Sengers 2022;Shakthi 2023). ...
... Numerous studies have explored inequalities in wages, wealth, education, and social capital between lower and upper castes (Thorat and Newman 2007;Upadhya 2007;Majumder 2010;Arora and Singh 2015;Walters 2019;Oxfam India, 2022;Tiwari et al. 2022). The literature consistently shows that lower castes face a substantial income gap, earning on average 55% less than upper castes for comparable work (Kumar and Hashmi 2020). ...
... Evidence of caste-based discrimination within the Indian private sector, particularly in the service sector, is well-documented. Upadhya (2007) conducted a survey of 132 software professionals in Bangalore and found that the majority belonged to a few dominant upper castes, highlighting the exclusionary practices in the tech industry. Similarly, Walters (2019) analysed the plight of sanitation workers, predominantly from the Scheduled Castes (SCs), and observed that they are disproportionately represented in this sector with limited opportunities for transitioning to less hazardous employment. ...
... It is said that the middle class has grown signi cantly globally with the rise of globalisation and liberalisation (ADB 2010;Ravallion 2010). The massive economic mobility has been possible because of the global spread of industries and the service sector largely augmenting the employment base in developing countries Upadhya 2007). As such, we also nd a signicant positive change in the size of the middle class in India (Table 3.3). ...
... Does this nascent class operate under the hegemony of the traditional middle classes of the region, gradually joining their ranks and folds, or do they instead qualify to be called the new middle classes of the region? As the chapter deals with these questions, the overarching context remains, in sum, that of the role of the state in promoting the capitalist transformation in India and continuities and changes emerging in the context of land liberalisation and market-friendly economic reforms in the last few decades -a phenomenon argued to be foundational for the emergence of a consumption-driven 'new middle class' in India Upadhya 2007). How has India's 'neoliberal' turn unfolded in its Northeast, and how has it impacted the identity mobilisations in the region? ...
... This also re ects Erik Olin Wright's position that "class should neither be identi ed simply with the individual attributes nor with the material conditions of life of people, but with the interconnections between these two" (Wright 2015:4). A signi cant body of scholarship claims that the newness in the new middle class lies in its employment in new service activities brought about by economic reforms resulting in liberalisation and globalisation Upadhya 2007). To further elaborate on them, some of the characters of the NMC, as per these scholarships, are increasingly consumerists lifestyle and identity, being aspirational and career-oriented, being technology savvy, more globalised than localised, and so on. ...
... The Information Technology (IT) sector is often regarded as a sector that operates on a meritocratic basis and exhibits a cosmopolitan work structure, mostly attributable to its globalised character of operations (Padmanaban, 2009;Upadhya, 2007). This perception is exuberated by the industry's policy of maintaining confidentiality surrounding its policies of remuneration and promotions in order to avoid internal conflicts. ...
... Despite a notable dearth of studies concerning caste disparity in wages in the Indian IT sector, few studies have examined the caste dynamics involved in the employment patterns in the IT sector. Most of these studies reveal the composition of India's IT sector to be majorly concentrated by individuals belonging to the urban middle-class and having educated parents (Hussain and Dutta, 2014;Oommen and Meenakshisundararajan, 2005;Upadhya, 2007). Such studies indicate the role of privilege in creating what is perceived as "merit". ...
Purpose: This study examines the impact of caste on salary levels and job positions within Kerala’s Information Technology sector, aiming to challenge the meritocratic perception of this critical area for India’s economic growth.
Design/methodology/approach: The study utilises a dataset of 24,590 employees from 21 IT firms, classified by ownership into Indian and foreign firms. Caste-based disparities are analysed by identifying employees with upper-caste surnames and distinguishing between Kerala Upper Caste and non-Kerala Upper Caste. Generalised Linear Model (GLM) are used to quantify salary disparities and provide deeper insights into how caste, gender and ownership influence salaries.
Findings: The findings reveal significant wage gaps, with individuals bearing upper-caste surnames earning more than their non-upper-caste counterparts, especially in Indian-owned firms. Kerala Upper Caste employees enjoy a salary premium, which is reduced in foreign-owned firms. Moreover, upper-caste individuals are likelier to hold senior roles, indicating potential barriers for non-upper-caste employees.
Research limitations/implications: These results highlight the need for targeted policies to address caste-based inequalities, promoting inclusiveness and fairness in the IT workplace. Wage-setting practices and promotion criteria, particularly the recent trend of employee recommendations for recruitment, may risk amplifying existing disparities if not carefully managed. Industry leaders must recognise and mitigate these risks to ensure equitable employment practices. Limitation: The study’s reliance on surname-based caste identification may underestimate the extent of caste disparities. Further, the absence of additional human capital controls, and focus on Kerala limit the generalizability of findings.
Originality/value: This study is the first to analyse caste dynamics within the IT sector using a rich dataset of corporate firms and wages, offering a novel methodological approach to understanding how social identity intersects with economic outcomes.
... Outsourcing created new employment and economic development opportunities in countries like India, which soon became the largest service outsourcing destination (Athreye, 2005;Manning, 2013). However, trained professionals in urban areas have often been target employees of outsourcing service providers, which has left disadvantaged, unskilled, or rural people neglected (Upadhya, 2007). Several African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and so on with a large population of educated but unemployed youth also saw services outsourcing as a promising industry for large-scale employment generation (see, for example, eGhana Report, 2009;Kenya Vision 2030, 2007; South Africa BPS Incentive, 2022): I joined this ministry in 2005, and at that time, we thought we had so many highly qualified youths that we could do exactly what India was doing (in business process outsourcing). ...
... However, trained professionals in urban areas have often been target employees of outsourcing service providers, which has left disadvantaged, unskilled, or rural people neglected (Upadhya, 2007). Several African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and so on with a large population of educated but unemployed youth also saw services outsourcing as a promising industry for large-scale employment generation (see, for example, eGhana Report, 2009;Kenya Vision 2030, 2007; South Africa BPS Incentive, 2022): I joined this ministry in 2005, and at that time, we thought we had so many highly qualified youths that we could do exactly what India was doing (in business process outsourcing). (Official, Ministry of Information and Communication, Kenya) Against this background, the Rockefeller Foundation (RF, 2013) started funding service outsourcing startups based in six African countries that focused on hiring and training people from disadvantaged groups with limited employment opportunities. ...
Social enterprises that operate in business-to-business contexts, often out of emerging economies, typically face high expectations from business clients, mainstream competition, and the challenge of operating across distances. In these contexts, social enterprises need to carefully choose which market segments to serve and how to organize their social mission accordingly. Based on the case of impact sourcing—hiring and training of disadvantaged staff for global business services—we seek to better understand this interplay. In general, we find that social enterprises in this context focus on serving either domestic clients with an implicit social mission and an integrated social enterprise model or international clients with a more explicit social mission and a decoupled model. We discuss why both main configurations represent viable social enterprise models in the outsourcing industry, and why, in particular, the professional background of founders plays a key role in these strategic choices. Our findings contribute to a more nuanced and context-sensitive understanding of social enterprise model adoption in emerging economies.
... Outsourcing created new employment and economic development opportunities in countries like India, which soon became the largest service outsourcing destination (Athreye, 2005;Manning, 2013). However, trained professionals in urban areas have often been target employees of outsourcing service providers, which has left disadvantaged, unskilled, or rural people neglected (Upadhya, 2007). Several African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and so on with a large population of educated but unemployed youth also saw services outsourcing as a promising industry for large-scale employment generation (see, for example, eGhana Report, 2009;Kenya Vision 2030, 2007; South Africa BPS Incentive, 2022): I joined this ministry in 2005, and at that time, we thought we had so many highly qualified youths that we could do exactly what India was doing (in business process outsourcing). ...
... However, trained professionals in urban areas have often been target employees of outsourcing service providers, which has left disadvantaged, unskilled, or rural people neglected (Upadhya, 2007). Several African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and so on with a large population of educated but unemployed youth also saw services outsourcing as a promising industry for large-scale employment generation (see, for example, eGhana Report, 2009;Kenya Vision 2030, 2007; South Africa BPS Incentive, 2022): I joined this ministry in 2005, and at that time, we thought we had so many highly qualified youths that we could do exactly what India was doing (in business process outsourcing). (Official, Ministry of Information and Communication, Kenya) Against this background, the Rockefeller Foundation (RF, 2013) started funding service outsourcing startups based in six African countries that focused on hiring and training people from disadvantaged groups with limited employment opportunities. ...
Social enterprises that operate in business-to-business contexts, often out of emerging economies, typically face high expectations from business clients, mainstream competition, and the challenge of operating across distances. In these contexts, social enterprises need to carefully choose which market segments to serve and how to organize their social mission accordingly. Based on the case of impact sourcing—hiring and training of disadvantaged staff for global business services—we seek to better understand this interplay. In general, we find that social enterprises in this context focus on serving either domestic clients with an implicit social mission and an integrated social enterprise model or international clients with a more explicit social mission and a decoupled model. We discuss why both main configurations represent viable social enterprise models in the outsourcing industry, and why, in particular, the professional background of founders plays a key role in these strategic choices. Our findings contribute to a more nuanced and context-sensitive understanding of social enterprise model adoption in emerging economies.
... The industry prides itself on breaking away from trends of preferential treatment and on hiring talent purely on the basis of 'merit'. This has given new impetus to work unpacking meritocracy within professional hierarchies of computing, which has revealed that merit is often seen as being in conflict with caste-based affirmative action in India [126,132]. ...
... Hiring in the IT industry too is laden with the language of merit, where it is contrasted with the nepotism of old industries driven by personal ties, family connections, or caste itself [86]. Scholars of IT and engineering in India have found that merit is understood as a proxy for good English language skills, 'good' family background (where 'good' is associated with upper-caste markers) [50], or private education, which is more likely to lead to access to better technical education at the top engineering institutions [45,126,132]. These are all attributes associated with upper-caste resources. ...
Recent work in HCI has shed light on structural issues of inequality
in computing. Building on this work, this study analyzes the relatively
understudied phenomenon of caste in computing. Contrary
to common rhetorics of ‘castelessness,’ we show how computing
worlds in India and Indian diasporic communities continue to be
shaped and inflected by caste relations. We study how, when and
where Dalits (formerly ‘untouchables’) encounter caste in computing.
We show how they artfully navigate these caste inscriptions
by interpreting, interrupting and ambiguating caste and by finding
caste communities. Drawing on the life stories of 16 Dalit engineers
and anti-caste, queer-feminist and critical race theories, we argue
that a dynamic and performative approach to caste, and other forms
of inequality in HCI and computing, emphasizes the artfulness and
agency of those at the margins as they challenge structural inequality
in everyday life. Lastly, we suggest practical ways of addressing
caste to build more open and inclusive cultures of global computing.
... However, during the last decades, women have been constantly closing this gap by acquiring higher education and waiving the orthodox taboos. The IT sector offers white-collar jobs requiring knowledge-centric skills and providing comparatively high salary, international mobility, and a flexible and physically less taxing work in a comfortable office environment (Kumar, 2001;Shanker, 2008;Upadhya, 2006). The jobs at computers can be termed suitable for women and possessing IT skills does not appear as odd. ...
... Often, parents expect IT sector to open better financial and marital prospects. The Indian information technology (IT) industry is a significant source of high quality and well-paid employment for the educated youth of India (Upadhya, 2007). Moreover, IT-related jobs are also considered "safe" for women because they are white-collar jobs in which employees interact with an exclusive, educated stratum of society (Thakkar et al., 2018). ...
In this work, we conduct an investigation on perspectives and existing barriers for women trying to pursue a career in the Indian software industry. The study is focused on three dimensions: organizational policies and practices, workplace environment, and social-familial factors. Another goal is to compare the perception of male and female software professionals concerning the impact of these dimensions on the careers of female software professionals. The study reveals that formally organizations provide gender-neutral policies, and currently the emphasis needs to be placed on their implementation. It has been observed that, on the whole, there is a favorable work environment and unbiased attitude toward female software employees. At the same time, we conclude that, despite significant progress, hurdles - mainly coming from the society and family traditions—still exist restraining flourishing careers of women in the software sector.
... These traits of the leaders of the Indian IT industry are well-acknowledged globally. Consequently, industry's recruitment practices tend to skim off the cream talent among engineering graduates and privileged students with the right kind of cultural capital, leading to high expectations on one hand and high disillusionment on the other, in the context of the global employees, which ultimately leads to employee exclusion (Upadhya, 2007). Hence, placing employees ahead of customers and treating employees as customers are key to attain better service quality and enhanced customer satisfaction, with the latter leading to customer loyalty and eventually repeated purchase intention and positive marketing (Byju, 2013). ...
... This can have a significant impact on the IT industry in particular due to their progressive outlook. 7 Moreover, the IT industry provides employment opportunities to a broader section of the population (Upadhya, 2007). The IT professionals have transformed into a new category of global worker-consumer as indicated by their work narratives about personal growth, greater awareness, and benefits of international exposure (Baviskar and Ray, 2015). ...
The Information Technology (IT) sector is one of the most dynamic and volatile sectors of the economy all over the world. Contrary to the other sectors, there has been a significant growth of this service sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, causing its restructuring and redefining the role in the knowledge-based economy. It needs constant skill upgradation and the design of new management structures to empower and engage employees in order to stimulate productivity and garner employee satisfaction. The work culture of this sector has metamorphosed recently and it now emphasises flat organizational structures, as there is the ever-increasing realisation of the importance of employees' roles in the organizations. Hence, the concepts of Internal Marketing and Internal Consumer Satisfaction are required to be introduced, embedded, and given importance now more than ever, in this sector. The striking element of this concept is that employees are treated as internal customers. This paper highlights the importance of Internal Marketing and Internal Customer Relationship Management (IntCRM) in order to leverage the transformational growth of the Indian IT sector in the times to come. This research also provides a conceptual framework for Internal Customer Satisfaction that highlights the major factors and organizational drivers of employee engagement that are responsible for executing a successful Internal Marketing and IntCRM regime. The framework can be applied to other sectors as well, in order to an increase internal customer satisfaction so that it can lead to better external customer satisfaction, eventually leading to increase in profits, commitment, and growth of the organizations. 2
... Unlike the public sector, social protection policies like reservation are relatively absent in the private sector. Studies have also shown the existence of labour market discrimination in the private sector in India (Thorat and Attewell 2007;Upadhya, 2007). Based on a correspondence study Thorat and Attewell (2007) argue that even if they have equal credentials as those of others, SCs and Muslim candidates have fewer chances of getting interview calls from the private corporate sector. ...
... This also highlights the existence of a deep-rooted structure of social discrimination in the country. Upadhya (2007) avers that candidates from the disadvantaged groups are systemically excluded from the process of interviews by the Human Resource divisions of companies in India in the much-celebrated information industry sector. Many of the personal attributes that are valued in the recruiting process are embodied in cultural capital accumulation, which is heavily influenced by the social locations of individuals (Malish and Ilavarasan, 2011). ...
... Transcending the clinic, digital health technologies are sometimes portrayed as disruptors of this power dynamic, fostering a democratisation of medical expertise (Topol 2015). Social anthropologists and science and technology studies scholars, however, emphasise the interconnections between digital technologies and enduring knowledge-power relations, highlighting how they may reinforce, rather than dismantle, existing social hierarchies of gender, religion, class, and caste (e.g., Sarkar 2016, Shakthi 2023, Upadhya 2007. In India, for example, the medical gaze is deeply entangled not only with the institution of the clinic, but also with the institution of caste, as expertise and authority in the medical field are often assigned along caste lines. ...
In this article, I examine a public-private partnership project in West Bengal, India, that trains and deploys people from marginalised castes as digital health workers in rural areas. Although digital technologies offer new opportunities for access to the medical sector, caste hierarchies inherent to the field persist, reinforcing and perpetuating caste-based inequities. This is evident in the division of labour, shaped by caste dynamics and justified through the distinction between professional knowledge and technical skill. The widely-used metaphors of the doctor—and by extension the software—as the mind, and the health workers as foot soldiers, rely on and further entrench long-standing hierarchies of expertise where privileged castes do knowledge work while marginalised castes literally do the footwork. Nevertheless, health workers actively challenge these hierarchies and foreground their creative contributions. While caste lives on in projects of ‘empowerment’, particularly through the limited and limiting imaginations of health workers’ structural position, health workers find ways to visibilise and value their labour and expertise. I argue that their assertions and aspirations may open up new possibilities for thinking about ‘empowerment’. Overall, recast(e)ing medicine implies that caste in the health sector is being simultaneously perpetuated and reimagined in ambivalent and partly contradictory ways.
... The Indian Constitution recognises these injustices and provides reservations to ensure equal opportunities for Dalits and other marginalised groups (Waughray, 2010). However, these reservations have often been criticised, with some arguing that they allow individuals to occupy positions without merit (Upadhya, 2007). This perception necessitates focusing on the economic contributions of Dalit entrepreneurship to challenge stereotypes and highlight their capabilities. ...
This study investigates the economic contributions of Dalit entrepreneurship to the development of Rajasthan, aiming to challenge stereotypes surrounding Dalit capabilities and to highlight their role in job creation and economic sustainability. Utilising a descriptive research methodology, data was collected through surveys, interviews, and government statistics, focusing on 740 Dalit enterprises. By employing Solow"s Growth Model and regression analysis, the findings reveal that Dalit entrepreneurs contribute approximately 0.97% to the State"s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with an average annual contribution of ₹571,500 per entrepreneur. Despite significant challenges, including inadequate access to capital and infrastructure, the study emphasises that Dalit businesses play a crucial role in local economies by providing essential goods and services. This research underscores the importance of recognising Dalit entrepreneurship as a vehicle for social equity, economic resilience, and community upliftment. The originality of this study lies in its comprehensive analysis of Dalit entrepreneurship within the context of economic liberalisation, offering insights that can inform policy-making and support systems aimed at empowering marginalised communities.
... Areas with low economic status usually have fewer jobs than urban areas (Sanchez et al., 2004). In urban areas, employment opportunities will be wider for people with various background abilities (Puga, 2010;Upadhya, 2007). This was also stated by Mason et al. (2019); Mendes et al. (2019) that many businesses in urban areas require multidisciplinary workers. ...
This study aims to reveal the urbanization trend for Vocational High School (VHS)graduates which is influenced by socioeconomic status, minimum wage level, and employment. This study uses a quantitative methodology and is structured as an explanatory study. The study involved 478 samples of VHS alumni working in big cities by purposive random sampling. Data was collected through a questionnaire instrument using an online form which was declared content valid using Aiken with a range of 0.81 to 0.94 and constructively using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with a Keyser Mayer Olkin (KMO) value between 0.598 to 0.765. The instrument has also shown a reliability coefficient of 0.789 to 0.867 which means the instrument is reliable. Analysis was conducted via Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with LISREL. The findings of this study indicate that (1) socioeconomic status, minimum wage level, and employment exert a positive and significant influence on the urbanization rate of VHS graduates by 35.1%; (2) Socioeconomic status and minimum wage levels positively and significantly affect on employment by 20.8%; (3) Socioeconomic status and minimum wage rates through employment positively and significantly affect on the urbanization rate of VHS graduates of 68.7%.
... Thus, the persistence and significance of caste in the corporate sector reflect through its erasure in the neoliberal economy (ibid). The information technology industry, treated as the face of the developing Indian economy, is biased towards the urban upper-caste middle-class candidates and excludes individuals from lower-caste and rural areas in the name of merit (Upadhya, 2007). In her study of caste dynamics in the Information Technology (IT) industry in Chennai, Shakthi conceptualises the everyday mundane practices of bodily markers, dietary preferences and use of caste surnames as corporate Brahminism resulting in the consolidation of the upper caste networks (Shakthi, 2023). ...
The article presents a comprehensive mapping of the recent sociological literature on neoliberalism in the Indian context. It contends that the conceptualisation of neoliberalism demands a serious acknowledgement of the resilience and persistence of the social and its intertwining with the neoliberal economy. In this direction, the article critically reviews the scholarly works on caste, gender and neoliberalism in contemporary India to explicate the mutually constitutive nature of the social and neoliberal economy. The article also maps the recent studies on entrepreneurship and illustrates how caste and gender relations continue to be significant factors in facilitating entrepreneurship among different communities and social groups. The article calls for more sociologically informed conceptual frameworks to understand the unravelling of the neoliberal economy in the diverse socio-economic context of Indian society.
... This observation strengthened the argument that the Indian software industry is a case of uneven and combined development. Upadhya et al. [9] notes from her study of the IT workforce in Bangalore and draws on other sources to show that the social profile of IT workers is largely urban, middle class, and high or middle caste. Bangladesh, as a country from the global south, seems to experience similar problems regarding discrimination in the software landscape as its neighboring country, India [10]. ...
Despite the notable contribution of Bangladesh to the software landscape, underlying issues persist in human resource management. The current system stratifies software professionals into hierarchical prestige layers based on their roles, ultimately leading to imbalances in gender-based role distribution. This issue is similar to the elephant-in-the-room phenomenon, where disparities exist but are rarely acknowledged , often being overlooked as a topic of discussion. To find the underlying causes of these imbalances, we conducted a localized qualitative study based on in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Based on the industry professionals' experiences regarding current industrial practices where societal codes and beliefs prevail, our study found several significant factors contributing to these imbalances, including hesitation towards complex technical environments, societal responsibilities, psychological and neurological differences, peer influence and mentoring, socioeconomic structures, recruiter biases, and employment opportunities. Improvement recommendations from the software professionals were also synthesized to present significant insights into reformation strategies and address the potential disparities. The findings also provide a foundation for developing more equitable practices and policies in the sector as well as serve as a valuable reference point for future researchers seeking to further explore and resolve these imbalances in the technology sector.
... Studies on a selective or limited sample (in some cases provided by the companies' human resources) have pointed out that the IT and ITeS sector is dominated by urban, male, middle-class savarna (Omvedt 2001a;2001b;Fuller and Narasimhan 2006;Upadhya 2007;Basant and Rani 2004). Subsequent studies, most notably Fernandez (2018), highlight that there may be a hierarchy within engineering positions, other more technical positions in knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), and business process outsourcing (BPO) roles, which are considered inferior. ...
... Studies on a selective or limited sample (in some cases provided by the companies' human resources) have pointed out that the IT and ITeS sector is dominated by urban, male, middle-class savarna (Omvedt 2001a;2001b;Fuller and Narasimhan 2006;Upadhya 2007;Basant and Rani 2004). Subsequent studies, most notably Fernandez (2018), highlight that there may be a hierarchy within engineering positions, other more technical positions in knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), and business process outsourcing (BPO) roles, which are considered inferior. ...
... In the formal and informal economies in periurban Bangalore, disadvantaged castes have been systematically excluded from valuable networks and opportunities. For instance, studies have found that most well-paid workers in the information technology-enabled services (ITES) industry in Bangalore come from well-off agricultural families or are members of upper castes, demonstrating that there are spatial solid and social discontinuities in technological experiences within India's 'IT city' (Heitzman, 2004;Upadhya, 2007;Upadhya & Vasavi, 2006). Greater dependence on ICTs might have exacerbated the economic exclusion of disadvantaged castes, especially the informal sector that emerged as a spin-off from the ITES industry in this region. ...
... In the formal and informal economies in periurban Bangalore, disadvantaged castes have been systematically excluded from valuable networks and opportunities. For instance, studies have found that most well-paid workers in the information technology-enabled services (ITES) industry in Bangalore come from well-off agricultural families or are members of upper castes, demonstrating that there are spatial solid and social discontinuities in technological experiences within India's 'IT city' (Heitzman, 2004;Upadhya, 2007;Upadhya & Vasavi, 2006). Greater dependence on ICTs might have exacerbated the economic exclusion of disadvantaged castes, especially the informal sector that emerged as a spin-off from the ITES industry in this region. ...
... Thirumal (2020) too writes on how privileged bodies share a habitus that seems inaccessible for people from oppressed social locations, who find it difficult to enter the everyday intimate spaces defined in ways such as "cellular (choice of food), intellectual (styles of thinking) and social reproduction (courtships, festivals, choices of colleagues who are invited home)." This is also echoed in research on the tech workforce in Bangalore, where the rhetoric of merit implicitly includes elements of cultural capital (communication, confidence, social skills) that are more likely possessed by middle to upper classes that majorly consist of dominant castes (Upadhya, 2007). ...
This paper sifts through the affective connotations and methodological issues that crop up during conversations about caste with dominant caste (savarna) women working in the Malayalam language film industry in Kerala, India, in the context of a heightened focus on gender in the post #MeToo era. Drawing on arguments from critical whiteness and critical race theories, it argues that caste ought to be viewed not just as an ontological entity but as an epistemological framework which shapes how knowledge about the world and selves are produced and transferred. It also explores the methodological challenges in broaching the topic of caste with women occupying powerful social locations and how in failing to explore caste in seemingly gender-focused studies, the researcher contributes to an epistemology of ignorance, rendering invisible a crucial power differential.
... Several non-profit organizations have undertaken skill enhancement initiatives, particularly for those from less privileged backgrounds. Upadhyay [37] in a study of socio-economic background of IT professionals finds that among those from rural areas and lower-income groups, the skill gap is higher, affecting their job entry and career progression. In D.K. district, one such non-profit organization the WKC has established Kshamata Academy [38] for motivating and providing soft skills training to students from lower income groups pursuing professional courses. ...
Purpose: The paper aims, through a literature survey, to study the skill enhancement initiatives of the Government, measures taken by Higher Education Institutions and the role of corporate sector in skill enhancement. The paper also examines the earlier mismatch between industry requirements and academic practices which necessitated skill enhancement efforts and the impact such training programmes have on Quality of Work Life of graduates. Design/Methodology/Approach: The data for the literature survey is collected from several secondary sources such as research papers, news articles, and websites. Results/ Findings: The review paper shows the existence of skill gap between the levels required by industry and the levels acquired by graduates. HEIs have re-modelled course content and teaching methodologies to make degrees corporate integrated. The Government has initiated a large number of initiatives to reach its goal of skill enhancement among the workforce/students. The paper also notes the importance of skilled human resources, positive effects of skill enhancement on employee performance, job satisfaction, and also organizational performance. Value: Through a detailed analysis of literature on the topic, the paper emphasizes the need for skill enhancement efforts. Type of Paper: Literature Review
... The uneven distribution of various types of capital necessary for professional and managerial roles may also play a role in shaping caste composition within organizations. For example, multiple studies in the Indian IT industry have found that a large majority of employees are from the Others, predominantly Brahmins, which some authors note is ''not surprising, given their monopoly over higher education and formal sector employment, especially in South India'' (e.g., Fernandez, 2017;Upadhya, 2007Upadhya, : 1864Shanker, 2000). A similar caste composition, i.e., high percentage of Others, predominantly Brahmins, was also reported for the early accounting profession in India (Sian & Verma, 2021). ...
Caste is an informal institution that influences socioeconomic action in many contexts. It is becoming increasingly evident that international business research, practice, and policy need to programmatically address caste. To facilitate this endeavor, we review the limited research in IB that has addressed caste, and theorize caste as a distinct informal institution by distinguishing it from other systems of stratification like race, class, and gender. In addition, we propose a parsimonious framework to highlight the implications of caste for Indian and non-Indian MNEs in their Indian and global operations. In doing this, we focus on implications with respect to the internal organization and inter-organizational relationships of MNEs, and consider how these implications might differ as based on the MNEs’ organizational forms. We then build on these implications to discuss how MNEs and other stakeholders of international business can address caste inequalities via policies related to human rights, anti-racism, and affirmative action. By bridging theory, practice, and policy, we pave the way for MNEs to address global inequalities that relate to caste.
... The Qualitative Report 2022 industry (Upadhya, 2007). However, gender diversity and inclusion has received more attention by organizations in the IT industry than other aspects of social difference (Buddhapriya, 2013). ...
The paper aims to demonstrate that while researcher’s background could be a factor in gaining access to research participants and to the organization, other elements like trustworthiness, reflexivity, and engaged participant listening help in overcoming gender barriers in interviewing the research participants. This paper is a reflexive account of field experience as a part of doctoral research aimed at establishing that not only could gender barriers to access to research participants be overcome, but also that a gender-outsider positionality offers insights into women’s workplace experiences that are shaped through the discourses and practices of managerialism. The field experience highlighted the possibility of gaining and sustaining access through identifying spaces of engagement where the interests of the researcher, the organization, and the research participants intersect. The field experience pointed to the significance of the researcher’s own past experience with managerialism, in taking a closer look regarding the lived experiences of women employees with managerialism. Lastly, it is demonstrated that institutional ethnographic fieldwork could also contribute to the organization’s endeavors for creating a safe, non-discriminatory, and inclusive workspace for women employees. This paper establishes that gender barriers to access to research participants could be overcome through a standpoint of trusted outsider and use of institutional ethnography.
... People belonging to the Backward Castes-Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST)-have been historically exploited and isolated from the mainstream ways of development (Sengupta et al 2008;Upadhya 2007;Deshpande and Newman 2007). Being at the lower end of the social hierarchy, they have had to face economic deprivation for generations. ...
This paper aims to explore and analyse both the demand-and supply-side determinants of child labour by performing a cross-sectional analysis in rural and urban areas of select districts across Indian states. Results show that the availability of government schools is an insignificant factor in reducing child labour in the rural areas whereas the urban areas of districts with higher per capita district domestic product have more child labour. Additionally, districts with high labour demand in agriculture and household industries tend to report higher incidence of child labour.
... "merit" and celebrates their economic contributions to this industry (see also Upadhya 2007;Fernandez 2018). With about four million workers, information technology (IT) and IT-enabled service (ITES) companies yielded 8% of India's Gross Domestic Product in 2020, the first COVID-19 year. ...
The Indian technology industry is an economic asset for the State. Successive governments and corporations identify tech workers as privileged and their mobilisation as unnecessary. High-skilled tech workers are apparently different from non-tech workers and remain secluded from politics. Tech workers’ trade unions, however, can decisively subvert these claims. From three tech unions’ Facebook posts in 2020, the first COVID-19 year, this study finds that politics remains central to their discourses. Even though tech workers are understood to be “apolitical,” their trade unions have been interacting with political institutions, ministers, bureaucrats, and other non-tech trade union organisers. Some of these tech unions are even affiliated to political parties. The article also identifies some explicit similarities between the unions of tech and non-tech workers in India, and politicised labour movements worldwide. The continuing precarity of unemployment, overwork, and drastic pay cuts that peaked during the pandemic has exposed the tenuous structures of white-collar privilege. By affecting workers in all industries, oppressive neoliberal forces have ironically paved the way for labour solidarity through political resistance.
... Implicit forms of caste discrimination are well understood among lower caste communities who face various forms of an embargo as a result of gate-keeping of valuable social capital within caste networks [74,113]. While many economists and anthropologists of South Asia have insisted upon studying caste as a network of social relations among individuals [53,68], there are few empirical and formal studies of caste networks and the kind of social capital it enables in the world of social computing. ...
Twitter is increasingly important for political outreach and networking around the world. While electoral politics and social relations in India are heavily organized by caste, a broader rhetoric of castelessness among upper-caste politicians has led to the eschewing of caste publicly to appear strategically secular. This has rendered caste dynamics more implicit than explicit. Social media, often cited as a tool for inclusion, offers a unique look into the networks of covert exclusion. Our study analyzes three structural properties of the Twitter network of Members of Parliament in India - influence, bridging capital, and mutual connectivity, to understand how caste manifests as social capital in the information economy. Our results show that those higher in the caste hierarchy are structurally poised for higher social capital through higher influence, incoming bridging capital, and higher propensity for mutual connections with other MPs in the network. Our study offers a methodological window into these invisible relations to show how structural advantages of Brahmanical supremacy are being co-produced and stabilized on social media at the highest level of politics.
... It is said that the middle class has grown signi cantly globally with the rise of globalisation and liberalisation (ADB 2010; Ravallion 2010). The massive economic mobility has been possible because of the global spread of industries and the service sector largely augmenting the employment base in developing countries (Fernandes 2006;Fuller and Narasimhan 2007;Upadhya 2007). As such, we also nd a signicant positive change in the size of the middle class in India (Table 3.3). ...
... As Badiou puts it, "the constant fear of a privileged few is to lose their privilege." 45 Carol Upadhya has observed that Indian tech-workers hail from educated urban middle-class families, 46 which suggests that their class interferes with their association with labour and the struggle for workers' rights. This also impacts their protests: the social movements of the new bourgeoisie are aimed at resisting their "proletarization," 47 and not necessarily resisting systemic inequity. ...
This article focuses on Indian tech-workers’ views on labour and social movements in the context of precarity, digital globalism, and the neoliberal transformations of the culture and economy. Based on interviews of twenty information technology (IT) workers in
India, conducted in 2018, I found that they inhabit the liminal spaces between precarity and privilege. I call it the precarity of liminality. This ambiguous status, combined with the assumption of white-collar prestige, prevents tech-workers from defending their labour rights. Indeed, even the trade unions formed exclusively for tech-workers are constrained by their members’ assumption of privilege. I hold that this is the case because the neoliberal market has transformed the local underpinnings of culture into a homogeneous simulacrum and codified performance, so that even the cultural diversity of these workers fails to resist their co-option into the global logic of labour and capital.
... While we have strived to present more generalized insights into IS as a tool of neocolonial control, we recognize that our study is subject to limitations arising from our narrow focus on a specific context. In particular, the centrality given to the client-CRO relationship has obscured the class, caste and gender positions of those used within the value chain of offshored work in India (Radhakrishnan, 2007;Upadhya, 2007). A large number of marginalized groups are used by the CRO industry in the capacity of lab workers, nurses andnot leastvolunteers in clinical trials (SunderRajan, 2006). ...
Purpose
This paper analyzes how information systems (IS) can serve as tools of neo-colonial control in offshore outsourcing of research and development work. It draws on critical work examining business and knowledge process outsourcing.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports an empirical study of how laboratory information management systems (LIMS) shape offshore outsourcing practices involving Western client firms and Indian contract research organizations (CROs) in the pharmaceutical industry. The study adopted a multi-actor perspective, involving interviews with representatives of Western clients, Indian CROs, system validation auditors, and software vendors. The analysis was iterative and interpretative, guided by postcolonial sensitivity to themes of power and control.
Findings
The study found that LIMS act as tools of neo-colonial control at three levels. As Western clients specify particular brands of LIMS, they create a hierarchy among local CROs and impact the development of the local LIMS industry. At inter-organizational level, LIMS shape relationships by allowing remote, real-time and retrospective surveillance of CROs’ work. At individual level, the ability of LIMS to support micro-modularizing of research leads to routinization of scientific discovery, negatively impacting scientists’ work satisfaction.
Originality/value
By examining multiple actors’ perceptions of IS, this paper looks beyond the rhetoric of system efficiency characteristic of most international business research. As it explores dynamics of power and control surrounding IS, it also questions the proposition that outsourcing of high-end work will move emerging economies upstream in the value chain.
... (…) the social and economic factors that produce "meritorious" candidates in the first place, especially the continuing monopoly over a certain kind of cultural capital that is enjoyed by the middle class -which is composed mainly of upper castes -due to their greater access to the best educational institutions and other processes of social closure. (Upadhya 2007(Upadhya : 1866 Die Reservierungen werden in Indien immer wieder zur Streitfrage. 36 Auch unter meinen Gesprächspartner*innen wurde kritisch über den Nutzen der Quotenregelung reflektiert. ...
... Then it becomes fairness for who?" Many respondents described how the Indian technology sector claimed to be 'merit-based', open to anyone highly gifted in the technical sciences; but many have pointed to how merit is a function of caste privilege [195,206]. Many, though not all, graduates of Indian Institutes of Technology, founders of pioneering Indian software companies and nearly all Nobel prize winners of Indian origin have come from privileged castes and class backgrounds [71,195]. As P21 (legal researcher) explained the pervasive privilege in AI, "Silicon Valley Brahmins [Indians] are not questioning the social structure they grew up in, and white tech workers do not understand caste to spot and mitigate obvious harms." ...
Conventional algorithmic fairness is West-centric, as seen in its sub-groups, values, and methods. In this paper, we de-center algorithmic fairness and analyse AI power in India. Based on 36 qualitative interviews and a discourse analysis of algorithmic deployments in India, we find that several assumptions of algorithmic fairness are challenged. We find that in India, data is not always reliable due to socio-economic factors, ML makers appear to follow double standards, and AI evokes unquestioning aspiration. We contend that localising model fairness alone can be window dressing in India, where the distance between models and oppressed communities is large. Instead, we re-imagine algorithmic fairness in India and provide a roadmap to re-contextualise data and models, empower oppressed communities, and enable Fair-ML ecosystems.
Amidst the contrasting debates between the loosening caste-based prohibitions on marriage and the tenacity of endogamous marriages, which is explicit in cases of ‘honour’ killings, this chapter focuses on how caste mediates in romantic relationships and marriages. It examines the routes inter-caste couples take to gain social validation of their amorous relationship and the response meted out to them by the family and kin members. It shifts attention from the transformation observed in marriage practices of urban middle-class-upper castes to the lower middle-class and castes. Examining inter-caste marriages defying the line of “purity” provides insights into the intricate and reluctant negotiations between modern ethos and traditional values in urban areas.
The neo-liberal reforms are advocated and lauded for strengthening efficiency, creating white-collar professionals in the private sector, and expanding job opportunities in the market. The transformations introduced by the new economic policies in the free-market economy are simultaneously criticised for surging casualisation of paid work. Youths are one of the key demographic groups to have drawn significant attention in developing countries to gauge the consequences of the transformed economy. The conceptual theorisation of “waiting,” “timepass,” “precarity,” or “neo-liberal subjectivity” shows how youths negotiate to overcome their precarious status in the contemporary labour market and reconfigure the meaning attached to the category of youth. Continuing the discussion on intergenerational mobility, the chapter primarily attends to the occupational aspirations and engagement of youths from different caste groups.
Rapid changes in technology have contributed to making globalization a reality, in spite of it being criticized for imposing Western cultural values on the world. Globalization embeds a neoliberal ideology where productivity, competition, and profit prevail. This paper posits that neoliberalism has enabled the persistence and further spread of coloniality in the field of psychology, both as a research enterprise and practice. The production of psychological research, the diagnosis of psychological disorders, and the prescription of Western therapeutic packages all follow the neoliberal profit-making paradigm which commodifies the field of psychology. The underrepresentation of Global South research is discussed, as well as the over-emphasis on individuality in the conceptualization of well-being and success. The call for a decolonial perspective is underlined, advocating a perspective from within, as opposed to a perspective from above, that critically and selectively integrates indigenous knowledge and practices with what is relevant from the West.
The article uses caste capital as a conceptual tool to analyze educational inequalities by looking at the household-level differences and school differentiation among different caste groups in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. Caste capital is the social, cultural, and economic assets associated with the hierarchical ranking of a group, which privileged groups could utilize to take advantage of disprivileged others. This includes an informed and conscious effort to create a cultural environment that values and prioritizes education for social and economic advancement. Based on a field survey at the household level, the findings indicate a strong connection between caste, household type, and school choice. The pattern of educational inequality becomes evident whereby individuals from higher caste backgrounds with more affluent households tend to have better educational opportunities. The findings show how caste hierarchy intersects with school choice, creating a hierarchy of educational opportunities producing and reproducing educational inequalities.
Одной из ключевых задач государственной молодежной политики Правительства Российской Федерации является обеспечение условий, позволяющих вовлекать молодежь в трудовую занятость. В научной статье представлены результаты анализа механизмов и мероприятий, которые направлены на вовлечение молодежи в занятость в области информационно-телекоммуникационных технологий. Определены основные тенденции развития сектора информационно-телекоммуникационных технологий в экономике Российской Федерации. В процессе исследования применялись теоретические: субъектно-объектный, структурно-функциональный подходы и методы системного анализа; и эмпирические методы научного исследования: статистические модели. Результаты анализа показали, что при обеспечении трудовой занятости молодежи, в том числе студенческой, необходимо учитывать ее интерес к тем отраслям экономики Российской Федерации, которые позволяют реализовать креативность и человеческий потенциал. Для этого наиболее подходят организации в области информационно-телекоммуникационных технологий. С учетом этого, применяются мероприятия, которые направлены на совершенствование нормативно-правового и финансового обеспечения экономической деятельности субъектов информационно-телекоммуникационных технологий. В заключении статьи, автором установлено, что для формирования вовлечения молодежи в занятость в области информационно-телекоммуникационных технологий необходимо создание стимулирующих условий развития предприятий данной отрасли, которые позволят, в том числе, реализовать креативный потенциал и стремление к предприимчивости молодежи Российской Федерации.
One of the state youth policy’s key tasks for the Government of the Russian Federation is to provide conditions that allow youth to be involved in employment. This scientific article presents the results of the analysis of mechanisms and activities that are aimed at involving young people in employment into IT industry. The main trends in the IT sector development in the Russian economy are determined. The following theoretical approaches were used in the research: subject-object, structural-functional approaches and system analysis methods; and statistical models as the empirical method. The results of the analysis showed that when providing employment for young people, including students, it is necessary to take into account their interest in those sectors of the Russian economy that allow them to realize creativity and human potential. IT organizations are most suitable for this. Some measures are taken that are aimed at improving the legal and financial support for the IT companies’ economic activities. The author found in conclusion, that in order to involve young people into IT industry employment, it is necessary to create stimulating conditions for this industry enterprises’ development, which will allow, among other things, to realize the Russian youth creative potential and the desire for entrepreneurship.
What is the role of humor in obfuscating social hierarchy? This article describes how caste prejudices among male taxi drivers in Uttarakhand in the Indian Himalayas are enacted through the humor of calling each other “funny” names. Such humor is directed toward Dalit drivers whose proper first names are replaced by “funny” names that caricature their personal attributes as an index of their “lower‐caste” identity without addressing it directly. Given the conditions of social change in the practice of caste across India, calling such names provides the “upper‐caste” drivers grounds for the disavowability of addressing caste. Calling Dalit drivers funny first names at the taxi stand eschews addressing directly the collective lower‐caste identity indexed in their last names even as the humor so enacted becomes the premise for identifying their caste identity. It exceeds and bypasses legalized notions of caste atrocity by distorting personal attributes into humorous name‐calling that is indexically removed from the denigration of collective caste identity that can be disavowed. This article offers an ethnography of humor to understand how humorous sociability becomes the means for addressing lower‐caste identity while simultaneously providing the grounds for its obfuscation and disavowal.
The chapter traces the confluence of developmental discourses of psychology and economic discourses of human capital theory, and the ways in which they come together to produce the ideals for childhood development. Institutionalized through fields such as education, health and development, these ideals are ones that link children’s present to their imagined futures as productive adults, and thus advocate a range of interventions in the present to keep children on this ‘positive’ trajectory of growth. Examining one such popular developmental intervention called ‘life skills education’ (LSE), advocated by international agencies such as the United Nations, and popularized by national frameworks for education, the chapter draws attention to how different childhoods are measured as ‘resilient’ or ‘risky’, based on their ‘life skills’. Drawing on an ethnographic study of LSE programmes conducted in Bangalore, the chapter shows how these skills identified are psychological ones, to cope with the structural uncertainties of modern living, while risks and resilience are located within individual personalities. Further examining the subject matter of these LSE programmes, the chapter shows how they draw upon class- (and caste-) specific knowledges, attitudes and skills, thus framing alternate childhoods through a deficit discourse. Putting the data together, the chapter points to the politics of international development and academic production of knowledge, through which non-elite childhoods are further marginalized.
This article examines the role of language in shaping work processes in the Indian information technology (IT) industry, which has become synonymous with the country’s ‘new’ middle class. In the South Indian city of Chennai, the industry has attracted a number of migrants from other parts of the country, including from non-metropolitan areas south of Chennai. Frequently referred to (and also self-identifying) as being from ‘down South’, many of these employees have been provided new opportunities for social mobility through IT work. Using qualitative methods, this article interrogates the discursive registers of ‘down South’. It demonstrates how the term is layered over fluency in English, a crucial form of cultural capital in the industry, to mark certain employees as possessing less ‘talent’ (or ‘merit’). Moreover, it moves beyond the emphasis on English in existing literature on the Indian middle class to determine the role of regional languages, particularly Tamil, on the IT office floor. By exploring the intersections of cultural capital with the spatialities of language and linguistic identities, this article reveals the internal diversity of the middle-class IT workforce and contributes to wider discussions on the structures of inequality that shape urban working lives.
Through an ethnography of college life in India, I examine the role of social ties in navigating the inequities of university life. I analyze the socialities of sharing knowledge and resources among disadvantaged students, which I call “infrastructures of sociality.” “Infrastructure” designates here two things: first, the role of the university's infrastructure—its physical spaces and organizational routines—in enabling social ties; and second, the fact that these social ties literally function as infrastructure, in that they make university life possible for disadvantaged students, especially in the context of institutional neglect. I therefore advance Bourdieusian scholarship that views social ties among disadvantaged students as merely lacking in social capital, arguing instead that these ties constitute a form of non‐dominant social capital that is analytically distinct and powerful in its own right. Yet, I suggest that these social ties are a double‐edged sword: while the intensive mutual aid of disadvantaged students makes university participation possible, it nonetheless rests on exclusion from more privileged social groups. Thus, despite mitigating exclusion from the university, infrastructures of sociality also inadvertently participate in the reproduction of inequality, by reinforcing exclusion from the elite cultural and social resources circulating among privileged students.
Over the last decade, Indian universities have come under ever increasing scrutiny in the established media and social media over the prevalence of caste based discrimination and institutional discrimination against Dalit students. Studies and official reports have established that caste is both rampant and institutionalized in elite institutions. In the twenty-first century, it is ironic, but not surprising that caste has remained pervasive, but the question is why? This book sheds light on that question. It is an outcome of a doctoral research, which examines an overview of academic journeys of Dalit students and discusses a comparative dimension with the United States higher education contexts. Stories and perspectives of graduate Dalit students reveal the pervasiveness of Brahmanical ideology, subtle casteism and institutionalized discrimination embedded in Hindu nationalism, in a public university in Gujarat. Further, it discusses how childhood experiences of caste and sociocultural subordination in society influence Dalit students’ interpersonal interactions with the peers and faculty of the privileged castes, and how it negatively impacts their academic potential during their higher education journeys. The discourse of the book is grounded in the transformative paradigm and discusses the research on the diversity framework that explains the social conflicts and issues of marginalized students in Indian higher education. This book makes a passionate plea to go beyond quotas to embrace diversity, equity and inclusion interventions and to create indispensable institutional support programs and services to assist Dalit students to transform the Indian universities into inclusive spaces for all.
Keywords: Dalit students, Caste, Systemic Exclusion, Indian Higher Education, Institutional Support, Counter Narratives, Academic Journey.
This paper examines the predicament of the Dalit youth in their pursuit of higher education through a qualitative study in a low-income locality of Delhi. In absence of control over material resources historically, education offered promise in liberating socially excluded groups for its instrumental link with modern occupational structure. The policy of universal public education backed up with affirmative action in India has formally aided its access across sections. Even as the participation of the hitherto marginalized groups has been increasing manifold, privatization and marketisation in the education sector under the neo-liberal regime have transformed the educational landscape. Dalit youth is largely segregated into low-quality distance and social sciences education. The paper discusses various constraining and motivating factors embedded within and outside the neighbourhood and educational institutions which shape their educational interests, choices, and decisions. It elaborates on how cumulative socio-cultural, spatial, and historical disadvantages continue to shape the process of educational exclusion, even when these groups live in a metropolitan city amidst educational institutions. However, we also stress that the state policies, informed mentors, shared aspirations, and diversity in socio-cultural interactions hold the potential to alter and widen educational aspirations, access, and outcomes.
This paper examines the predicament of educated youth belonging to socially marginalised groups in realising their aspirations in the city of Delhi. It critically foregrounds the potentials of education and urban location and analyses the educational and employment negotiations and outcomes of the urban youth living at the margins. It is based on a qualitative field study in a settlement predominantly inhabited by Dalits and other backward classes. The paper argues that the local aspirations amid neo-liberal economic expansion in a metropolitan city, alongside the long-cherished dream of respectable jobs, place an enormous hope on pursuing higher education and advanced skills. However, the nature and quality of education and skills that are accessible to these youths hardly enable them realise stable white-collar jobs. Armed with educational degrees, they join and shift between low-end precarious jobs while waiting for stable employment. Gender relations preclude some of these precarious possibilities for female youths who negotiate terms of patriarchal norms to gain economic autonomy. Overall, this paper identifies and elaborates on how urban structural conditions and individual negotiations combine to reproduce social inequalities through a process of socio-economic mobility which is adverse and rarely upwards.
There is an outpouring of newfound faith in communicative openings in cyberspace and the coming human conversation, beyond borders and ideologies. However, the new technologies could in fact pave the way for greater centralised control and surveillance, as well as the explosion of majoritarian sentiments. The dangers of ideological manipulation and a glut of inane textual production under the guise of citizen production of textuality is emphasized, along with the opportunities for governments and corporations to indulge in total surveillance and propagate a myth of public opinion.
The purpose of the current study is to empirically examine the critical service quality dimensions that contributes to student satisfaction in higher education and to analyze whether satisfaction with service delivery leads to behavioral intentions for recommendation. The study, descriptive and diagnostic in nature was conducted on postgraduates graduate management students from two leading universities in South India. 216 students participated in the survey. Self-administered questionnaire was adopted to capture the perceptions of students on service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. For this purpose a twenty seven items scale for service quality by Jain et al., (2012), six item scale for satisfaction and a three items scale for behavioral intentions by Atheeyaman, A. (1997) was administered. CFA was performed to assess the model fit and multi variate analysis and SEM were utilized to ascertain the relationship between the variables. Service quality was found to be a significant predictor of students' satisfaction which in turn was found to be a significant predictor of the behavioral intentions to recommend the institute to other prospective students. The regression analysis reveals that among the eight dimensions identified, the dimension of 'interaction quality' had the strongest impact on student satisfaction. The study was confined to the postgraduate students in management from South India. The study holds implications for the institutions that aims to remain competitive in the landscape of education sector in India. This current study is one among the very few studies in India that empirically validates the idiosyncratic relationship between service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intentions within the educational domain specifically for Higher education.
The high and rising export intensity of India's software production reflects its global competitiveness. The progress of the industry is intrinsically related to the development of this competitiveness. The competitiveness has been developed in two stages. First, via long-term investment by the state in technical education and science and technology, with neither necessarily directed at the production of software. Subsequently, an incipient software industry with recognisably high export potential has been targeted via fiscal incentives and the provision of export-enabling infrastructure. The emergence of a globally competitive Indian software industry serves as an interesting example of successful state intervention at a time when the model is largely out of fashion.
This paper brings two new elements to the debate around expanding reservation in centres of excellence in higher education. First, it separately estimates upper caste Hindu profiles in education (dropout and completion rates), employment and relative incomes and establishes that UCHs are significantly better off in all these parameters than scheduled tribes, scheduled castes and other backward classes. It also establishes that in urban India, ST, SC and OBC have very similar profiles and are at a great distance from the UCHs. In rural India, OBCs are situated in the middle - between ST and SCs on the one hand and UCHs on the other - but again at a significant distance from the latter. Second, it links this privileged positioning of UCHs with changing labour market dynamics in the 1990s and suggests that as a result these castes dominate access to the best jobs in the urban economy. Access to high quality tertiary education has then become key to accessing the most dynamic segment of a decelerating labour market. It uses evidence from both of these to intervene in the current debate around expanding reservations to OBCs in public institutions of higher learning and argues that the above make expanding reservation imperative.
Rather than place of origin (rural vs urban) or economic background, two educated parents most commonly characterise newly recruited software professionals in Bangalore. A survey of three software firms showed that fathers of all new recruits have at least a high school degree; 75 per cent are college graduates. More than 80 per cent of all mothers also have a high school education or better. Having two educated parents is a significant asset in a situation of information scarcity; however, no more than 4-7 per cent of all Indians have parents who are similarly qualified. Restricting better-paying jobs to this tiny segment of the national talent pool severely shrinks the prospects for national growth and individual achievement. How information gaps can be resolved through better institutional means needs to be publicly debated.