castes in india their mechanism genesis and development

The results show that there exists large first-level and second-level digital divide between the disadvantaged caste groups and others in India. Further, this paper identifies the caste group based differences in socioeconomic factors that contribute to the digital divide between these groups using a non-linear decomposition method. Using nationally representative survey data, this paper analyzes the first-level digital divide (ownership of computer and access to the Internet) and the second-level digital divide (individual’s saffkill to use computer and the Internet) between the disadvantaged caste groups and others. Studies on caste-based digital inequality are still scanty in India. With the increasing importance of information and communication technologies in access to basic services like education and health, the question of digital divide based on caste assumes importance in India where large socioeconomic disparities persist between different caste groups. These were the consequences which stemmed from children being born to illiterate mothers and being brought up in the more impoverished parts of India. But the analysis also pointed to a broader conclusion which was that all children in India suffered from sharper, but less publicised forms of disadvantage than that engendered solely by gender. In respect of receiving a nutritious diet, the treatment of girls depended very much on whether or not their mothers were literate: there was no gender discrimination between children of literate mothers on the other hand, when the mother was illiterate, girls were 5 percentage points less likely to be well-fed relative to their brothers and the presence of a literate father did little to dent this gender gap.

In respect of vaccinations, the likelihood of girls being fully vaccinated, after controlling for other variables, was 5 percentage points lower than that for boys. The starting hypothesis, consistent with an universal interest in gender issues, was that girls were more likely to be neglected than boys. This paper conducts an econometric analysis of data for a sample of over 4000 children in India, between the ages of 1 and 2 years, with a view to studying two aspects of the neglect of children: their likelihood of being immunised against disease and their likelihood of receiving a nutritious diet.

Castes in india their mechanism genesis and development