Between and within Social Group Disparities in Higher Education: An Assessment for India and Major States

Vini Sivanandan, Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics

Assessment of social disparity in higher education provides comparative insight about the impact of affirmative policies in India. Affirmative policies in India have been implemented for almost six decades, which are expected to bring the historically backward caste groups representation in higher education in par with the forward caste group. In this paper, we use theil index of disparity to measure between and within group disparities among the social groups. Results reveal that between social groups disparities are significant and within groups disparities are almost negligible in higher education. Analysis within social group disparities indicates evidence of only female being under represented for all the states of India. Analysis by region also reveals between social group disparities are significant and within group disparities are almost negligible in higher education. Results reveal that backward caste group of India still lag far behind compared to forward caste group in terms of higher educational attainment