Are Caste Categories Misleading The - PDF document

1 Are Caste Categories Misleading? The R
Are Caste Categories Misleading? The Relationship Between Gender and Jati in Three Indian States Shareen Joshi (Georgetown University)NishthaKochhar(Georgetown University)VijayendraRao (World B

2 ank)UNUWIDER ConferenceFebruary 2017 W h
ank)UNUWIDER ConferenceFebruary 2017 W hat is caste? Varna categorizations based on ancient Hindu texts: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, VaishyasShudras, and those outside the caste sytemincluding “unt

3 ouchables”Government categories to
ouchables”Government categories to redress discrimination against lower castes: Forward Caste, Backward Caste (BC), Other Backward Caste (OBC), Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) Def

4 initions of who gets included in these g
initions of who gets included in these govt. categories have changed with time and become increasingly politicalAll large sample surveys restrict information on caste to these “broad” cat

5 egoriesSo our understanding of broad pat
egoriesSo our understanding of broad patterns in the link between gender and caste is limited to these government categories with SCs and STs considered “low caste”. But caste is lived as

6 Jati Several thousand jatisEndogamous
Jati Several thousand jatisEndogamous groupsSpecific to regions and subregionsSpecific to particular dialects and languagesLarge ethnographic literature on how jatimatters for women’s empowe

7 rment with upper castes facing more patr
rment with upper castes facing more patriarchal restrictions (e.g. Chen, 1995, Kapadia1997; Jeffrey and Jeffrey 1996; Seymour 1999; Srinivas1977, 1979, etcBut this ethnographic literature is limite

8 d to a few villages, and is now rather d
d to a few villages, and is now rather dated. Literature with large samples using government defined caste categories Lower caste women have higher labor force participation rates than upper cast

9 e women (large literature e.g. Boserup19
e women (large literature e.g. Boserup1970, Deshpande2001Lower castes have better femalemale sex ratios (e.g. Miller 1981, Dasgupta1987, Drezeand 2000)Lower caste women have higher labor participat

10 ion rates but face many other deprivatio
ion rates but face many other deprivations that show that they are much worse off than upper caste women (Deshpande2001, 2002) Economics l iterature on Jatis pecialized samples looking at specif

11 ic topics:Jatinetworks are centrally imp
ic topics:Jatinetworks are centrally important for insurance, marriage, upward mobility and migration (e.g. Banerjee and Munshi, 2004; Munshiand Rosenzweig, 2009; Munshi, 2011; Munshi2016)Jatishave

12 important implications for understandin
important implications for understanding the relationship between identity and politics (Rao and Ban 2007, Ban, Jhaand Rao 2012, Cassan2015, Huber and Suryanarayan2016But, to our knowledge, no on

13 e has looked at how jatisbroadly matter
e has looked at how jatisbroadly matter for women’s labor force participation and empowerment Contribution of our work Looks at large samples from three Indian states (Bihar, Odishaand Tamil N

14 adu)Combines data on jaticategories with
adu)Combines data on jaticategories with an expenditure module,and indicators of women’s labor force participation, intrahousehold bargaining, and physical mobility. (Surveys that have data o

15 n women’s empowerment do not have d
n women’s empowerment do not have data on household expenditures)Compares how govt. caste categories and jaticategories relate to women’s economic and social empowerment Limitations of ou

16 r work Baseline data from evaluations of
r work Baseline data from evaluations of women centered antipoverty programs in rural areasSo data is representative of poor, rural populations in these states and not of the entire stateThis is a

17 reduced form exercise so we are not test
reduced form exercise so we are not testing theoryor making causal claims, but comparing associations of gendered outcomes with broad caste categories and jaticategories Some information about the

18 three states Distribution by district in
three states Distribution by district in each s tate Caste distribution, by state Jati distribution, by state Summary Statistics from our data Characteristics of female respondents (means), by s

19 tate Characteristics of female responden
tate Characteristics of female respondents (means), by state Reduced form r egressions OUTCOMES: Female LFP, Measures of Intrahousehold decisionmaking, female physical mobilityCONTROLS:Househol

20 d level controls: per capita monthly con
d level controls: per capita monthly consumption expenditure and its squared, land holding, number of members in the household, gender of the household head, dummy for female headed household Ind

21 ividual controls: education level, age,
ividual controls: education level, age, age squared and age at marriage of the female respondent, and Panchayatlevel fixed effects. Regressions with government - defined caste categories Bihar Regr

22 essions with government - defined caste
essions with government - defined caste categories Odisha Regressions with government - defined caste categories Tamil Nadu Interaction of government - defined caste categories with p er capita mo

23 nthly consumption expenditure Jati level
nthly consumption expenditure Jati level analysis, by state Upper panels report coefficients for Scheduled Caste and Tribe Jatiswith all nonSC/ST jatisas the omitted categoryLower panels report c

24 oefficients for nonSC jatiswith SC/ST ja
oefficients for nonSC jatiswith SC/ST jatisas the omitted category Bihar Odisha Tamil Nadu Jati interactions with per capita monthly expenditure Bihar Jati interactions with per capita monthly expe

25 nditure Odisha Jati interactions with pe
nditure Odisha Jati interactions with per capita monthly expenditure Tamil Nadu Testing for equality of pairwise differences in jati coefficients Conclusion Focusing on governmentdefined broad cas

26 te categories can hide many details on t
te categories can hide many details on the lived reality of how caste and gender is experienced This requires information on jatiidentityEven in this limited sample we find that for both upper and

27 lower castes, there are important and in
lower castes, there are important and interesting differences between jatisAnd also heterogeneity within jatisby expenditureUnpacking these complex relationships will require much more workBut basi

28 ng our understanding of the relationship
ng our understanding of the relationship between gender and caste entirely on government categories can make a complex story sound simpler than it is. This adversely affects the design and targetin