Data from the ICE PRICE 360o survey shows that caste is getting increasingly irrelevant to the income status of households. What matters is the level of education attained by the earning member(s). But, much of the government intervention for socioeconomic empowerment remains caste-focused. Worse, as research by Shareen Joshi and Nishtha Kochhar of Georgetown University and Vijayendra Rao of the World Bank Development Research Group, that became part of the book, Towards Gender Equity in Development, shows, when it comes to interplay with gender, whatever limited efficacy (going by the PRICE 360o data) caste-based interventions could be having is further marred by the fact that it is jatis (sub-castes) that influence the impact of interventions more than caste-based classification of government-programme/policy targets. Perhaps, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach successive governments have had for decades could be exacerbating intra-caste inequalities when it comes to gender. The complex interplay between jati, class and gender thus merits much greater attention than it has received.
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The authors admit that placing sub-castes within the boundaries of the varna system or government-classification of caste is a very complicated issue, but cite earlier research that shows jati-based networks have a considerable influence on an individual’s prospects of marriage, employment and out-migration. They also cite research that separately show that there are large “differences in the allocation of benefits within the Scheduled Caste classification by jati” and jati-level population proportions “have significant implications for electoral outcomes”. The author’s analysis of caste-level and jati-level data shows that women’s autonomy relating to key household decisions and participation in the labour force broadly gains in strength as we go down the pyramid of caste-based “hierarchy” in three states—Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha. Within jatis, in Bihar and Tamil Nadu, women from the most marginalised jatis show a greater degree of autonomy on labour participation and socioeconomic decisions. In Odisha, while the Schedule Caste women have greater autonomy on labour force participation than their general category peers, on mobility, tribal women have significantly more autonomy. There will, of course, be regional variations, but empowering women could need a keener look at jatis if true gender equity is to be brought about.