Dalits face bias in pvt sector jobs, wages

IIDS, Princeton study reveals rampant discrimination and unequal access to jobs 

NEW DELHI: The caste bias in the Indian mindset is openly reflected in the nation’s employment scene and is substantially high in the urban labour market, especially the private sector, reveals a survey by the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies (IIDS) and Princeton University (United States).

Noting that a Dalit is less likely to get a job and a handsome pay package in a private firm, as compared to an applicant from an upper caste, the study points out that getting a job is much tougher for Dalits and Muslims as a clear bias is seen against them when it comes to inviting them for interviews and deciding their wages. “Discrimination occurs, to a large extent, in unequal access to jobs and fewer Dalits and Muslims get jobs,” says Prof Sukhdeo Thorat, chairman University Grants Commission, who conducted the survey.

The study assumes significance given the aggressive resistance of corporate houses to the government proposal for reservation to SC/ST and OBC in the private sector.

While the industry has been contending that merit plays an important role in hiring and that they do not discriminate on the basis of caste, religion or gender, the fact remains that Dalits do face unequal access to jobs.

The researchers filed 4,808 applications for 548 jobs advertised in English newspapers over 66 weeks starting October 2005. Applications by equally-qualified males from higher upper castes, Dalits and Muslims were filed for each vacancy and the response from the corporate sector was shocking.

While all higher upper caste candidates were called for interviews for a particular job vacancy, only 67% Dalits and 33% Muslims were contacted.

Also, there is a big gap between the wages of lower and upper castes in the regular salaried urban labour market. The discrimination means 15% lower wages for SC/ST.

“Discrimination accounts for a large part of the gross earnings difference between higher upper caste employees and Dalits in the regular salaried urban labour market, with occupational discrimination – unequal access to jobs – considerably more than wage discrimination,” says the study.

This explains why Dalits prefer government jobs to private. A separate study by the same team revealed that the ideal jobs for Dalit students are either administrative/civil services or teaching which have quotas, while students belonging to higher castes prefer the private sector.

About 48% Dalits surveyed said they wanted to be IAS/IPS and another 28% preferred teaching/research/academics, while only 9.2% aspired for high-profile jobs in private firms.

Compared to this, most general category students preferred high-profile jobs such as business analyst, corporate planner and relatively few (19 per cent) viewed administrative services as an ideal option.

Dalit students from comparable degree programmes also have lower expectations and see themselves as disadvantaged because of their caste and family backgrounds. Because they arrive in college with weaker skills, they almost always “play catch up” and often do not succeed. As such, they enter the job market with weaker English language and computer skills.

At the time of finding jobs as well the divide is evident. About 47% of general category students surveyed expected to find jobs in two months, while 45% of Dalit students gave themselves eight months to get lucky.