Rethinking Inequality: Dalits in the Market Reform Era

Featuring
Devesh Kapur
Non-Resident Fellow, Center for Global Development
Director of the Center for Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania

Hosted by
Arvind Subramanian
Senior Fellow and Director of the Understanding India Initiative
Center for Global Development

Surprisingly little is known about how Indias shift from a state-dominated to a market-driven economy is influencing the issue of caste. Kapur will present a new paper, co-authored with Lant Pritchett, that draws on a unique survey designed and implemented by Dalits (formerly called Untouchables). The survey captures changes in socially structured inequality since the 1990s that are important to Dalit households but typically overlooked in surveys that focus on conventional measures of well-being.

*This is the first in a planned series of seminars organized by CGD's Understanding India initiative, which explores India's development challenges and experiences and the lessons they might offer for other developing countries.