Group Discrimination in Labour Market: Focus on Caste and Religious Discrimination in India

This paper deals with the continuation of discriminatory hiring practices in the labour market by analysing field research previously conducted for the various spheres of employment. The analysis dissects the pitfalls of both the private and public sectors’ hiring practices and also offers a comparison to similarly consequential racial discrimination against the African-American population apparent in the United States where the majority of employers hail from White lineage. In terms of caste, the Indian employee landscape is plagued with prejudice against those considered to be of “lower” castes. This has historically limited occupational mobility and resulted in the total exclusion of certain communities from access to wealth. The same has been witnessed in terms of religious groupism, with employers favouring fellow practitioners of the same theology and perpetuating an idea of “us” and “them.” The paper further focuses on the implementation of reservation policies in India to counter such discrimination and argues the insufficiency of the same. Even within the public sector, for which such affirmative action exists, a disparity in quality of employment is evident. The data used to support these analyses centres around submission of multiple fictitious applications to various employers and compilation of their responses, with altered personal information but little to no difference in qualification. This process is extensively described in the paper, and an exhaustive analysis of its consequences is provided.