Caste at Private Sector Jobs | Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's Caravan

Another study in the book ‘Blocked by Caste: Economic Discrimination and Social Exclusion in Modern India’ published in 2010 reports discrimination in Public Distribution System (PDS). fair price shops, are either owned privately or run by cooperatives.

An analysis by Thorat and Lee, drawing on a survey of PDS outlets in 531 villages across five States, shows that there was discriminatory behaviour against Dalits by the PDS staff in respect of prices in 28 per cent of villages and in respect of quality in 40 per cent. In 26 per cent of the villages, dealers practised untouchability “by dropping goods from above into cupped Dalit hands below, so as to avoid ‘polluting contact’.”

Check also – Caste Discrimination in Jobs at Private Sector. What is the caste of your company?

For those who say there is no caste discrimination in private job market.

Book “Blocked by Caste: Economic Discrimination and Social Exclusion in Modern India” published in 2010 reports an experiment –

Thorat and Attewell ran an experiment to test caste discrimination in the urban labour market. For one year, researchers collected advertisements from leading English language newspapers for jobs in the private sector that required a university degree but no specialised skills. The researchers then submitted three false applications for each job. The applicants, all male, had the same or similar education qualification and experience. One of them had a recognisable upper caste Hindu name, another a Muslim name and the third a distinctly Dalit name. The expected outcome was a call for interview or further screening.

An analysis of the outcomes, using regression methods, showed that, although there were an equal number of false applicants from three social groups, for every 10 upper caste Hindu applicants selected for interview, only six Dalits and three Muslims were chosen. Thus, in modern private enterprises (including IT), applicants with a typical Muslim or Dalit name had a lower chance of success than those with the same qualification and an upper caste Hindu name.

For more detail read book named – BLOCKED BY CASTE, ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATION IN MODERN INDIA: Edited by Sukhadeo Thorat, Katherine S. Newman; Oxford University Press