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Caste Discrimination in Provision of Public Schools in Rural India

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  • Neha Bailwal
  • Sourabh Paul

Abstract

This paper aims to understand discrimination in the provision of public schools in rural India and how it affects the educational outcome of social groups. Using census data, we find that villages with a higher share of marginalised castes viz. Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) have a lower probability of having public schools. The negative relationship is non-monotonic as the marginal probabilities get weaker beyond a threshold level of SC/ST share. Though the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All) programme, mainly intended to expand elementary education, has reduced the gaps in the provision of primary schools, the extent of discrimination has increased at the secondary level. A strong association between public schools and educational outcomes highlights the importance of public schools. Finally, we show that the caste-based provisioning of public schools partially explains the disparity in the educational outcomes across social groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Neha Bailwal & Sourabh Paul, 2021. "Caste Discrimination in Provision of Public Schools in Rural India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(11), pages 1830-1851, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:57:y:2021:i:11:p:1830-1851
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2020.1862796
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Azam, Mehtabul, 2026. "The Enclave Penalty: Tribes, Caste, and Electricity Reliability in India," IZA Discussion Papers 18493, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. Iversen, Vegard & Kundu, Anustup & Lahoti, Rahul & Sen, Kunal, 2023. "Barriers or Catalysts? Traditional Institutions and Social Mobility in Rural India," IZA Discussion Papers 16601, IZA Network @ LISER.
    3. Bailwal, Neha & Paul, Sourabh Bikas, 2024. "Village dominance and learning gaps in rural India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 52-73.
    4. Viktoria Hnatkovska, Chenyu Hou and Amartya Lahiri, 2024. "Convergence Across Castes," Discussion Papers dp24-10, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    5. Kumar, Anand & Sahoo, Soham, 2021. "Social Identity and STEM Choice: Evidence from Higher Secondary Schooling in India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 900, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Sandhya Garg & Samarth Gupta & Sushanta Mallick, 2025. "Financial Access and Entrepreneurship by Gender: Evidence from Rural India," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 64(2), pages 729-754, February.
    7. Sam Asher & Kritarth Jha & Paul Novosad & Anjali Adukia & Brandon Tan, 2026. "Residential Segregation and Unequal Access to Local Public Services in India: Evidence from 1.5m Neighborhoods," NBER Working Papers 34818, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Edara, Rohitha, 2025. "Extent, patterns, and geographic scale of caste-based segregation in Indian schools," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).

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