"Grammar of Caste : Economic discrimination in contemporary India" lecture by Prof. Ashwini Deshpande at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 16th March 2012
Time : 3:00 pm
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Event Details : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to a Public Lecture on ‘Grammar of Caste : Economic discrimination in contemporary India’ by Prof. Ashwini Deshpande, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.
Abstract : The study brings together evidence on different dimensions of caste disparities based on two large national-level data sets in order to comment on the degree of change in the caste system over the last two decades. The paper presents evidence on the ‘Caste Development Index’ (CDI), constructed by the author, which allows a broader assessment of standard of living of caste groups than what a narrow focus on income would allow. One can use this index to compare a caste group across states or time, and the gap between CDI values across caste groups can serve as a measure of disparity. The study discusses the degree of continuity and change in caste disparities, and finds that data point more towards continuation of traditional hierarchies rather than towards their dissolution.
Measuring disparity is relatively straightforward; estimating discrimination is not. The paper presents the latest set of methods that allow researchers to gauge discrimination and shows how some of these methods have been used in the Indian context and what that quest has yielded. What is very revealing is that lip-service to merit notwithstanding, contemporary, formal, urban sector labour markets show a deep awareness of caste, religion, gender, and class cleavages, and that discrimination is very much a modern sector phenomenon, perpetuated in the present, not a thing of the past, nor is it confined only to the rural areas. The paper argues that caste discrimination is clear and persistent, and needs targeted interventions.
Speaker : Prof. Ashwini Deshpande is Professor of Economics at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India. Her Ph.D. and early publications have been on the international debt crisis of the 1980s. Subsequently, she has been working on the economics of discrimination and affirmative action issues, with a focus on caste and gender in India, as well as on aspects of the Chinese economy: role of FDI in the reform process, regional disparities and gender discrimination. She has published extensively in leading scholarly journals. She is the editor of Boundaries of Clan and Color: Transnational studies of inter-group disparity (along with William Darity, Jr.), 2003; Globalization and Development: A handbook of new perspectives, New Delhi, 2007 (hardcover) and 2010 (paperback); Captial Without Borders: Challenges to development, hardcover (2010) and paperback (2012) and Global Economic Crisis and the Developing world (with Keith Nurse), forthcoming 2012. Her latest book is Grammar of Caste: Economic discrimination in contemporary India, 2011. She received the EXIM Bank award for outstanding dissertation in 1994 and the 2007 VKRV Rao Award for Indian economists under 45.
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Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Details : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to a Public Lecture on ‘Grammar of Caste : Economic discrimination in contemporary India’ by Prof. Ashwini Deshpande, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.
Abstract : The study brings together evidence on different dimensions of caste disparities based on two large national-level data sets in order to comment on the degree of change in the caste system over the last two decades. The paper presents evidence on the ‘Caste Development Index’ (CDI), constructed by the author, which allows a broader assessment of standard of living of caste groups than what a narrow focus on income would allow. One can use this index to compare a caste group across states or time, and the gap between CDI values across caste groups can serve as a measure of disparity. The study discusses the degree of continuity and change in caste disparities, and finds that data point more towards continuation of traditional hierarchies rather than towards their dissolution.
Measuring disparity is relatively straightforward; estimating discrimination is not. The paper presents the latest set of methods that allow researchers to gauge discrimination and shows how some of these methods have been used in the Indian context and what that quest has yielded. What is very revealing is that lip-service to merit notwithstanding, contemporary, formal, urban sector labour markets show a deep awareness of caste, religion, gender, and class cleavages, and that discrimination is very much a modern sector phenomenon, perpetuated in the present, not a thing of the past, nor is it confined only to the rural areas. The paper argues that caste discrimination is clear and persistent, and needs targeted interventions.
Speaker : Prof. Ashwini Deshpande is Professor of Economics at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India. Her Ph.D. and early publications have been on the international debt crisis of the 1980s. Subsequently, she has been working on the economics of discrimination and affirmative action issues, with a focus on caste and gender in India, as well as on aspects of the Chinese economy: role of FDI in the reform process, regional disparities and gender discrimination. She has published extensively in leading scholarly journals. She is the editor of Boundaries of Clan and Color: Transnational studies of inter-group disparity (along with William Darity, Jr.), 2003; Globalization and Development: A handbook of new perspectives, New Delhi, 2007 (hardcover) and 2010 (paperback); Captial Without Borders: Challenges to development, hardcover (2010) and paperback (2012) and Global Economic Crisis and the Developing world (with Keith Nurse), forthcoming 2012. Her latest book is Grammar of Caste: Economic discrimination in contemporary India, 2011. She received the EXIM Bank award for outstanding dissertation in 1994 and the 2007 VKRV Rao Award for Indian economists under 45.
Related Events : Talks
"Grammar of Caste : Economic discrimination in contemporary India" lecture by Prof. Ashwini Deshpande at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 16th March 2012
!["Grammar of Caste : Economic discrimination in contemporary India" lecture by Prof. Ashwini Deshpande at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 16th March 2012]()
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Friday, March 16, 2012
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