Examining the Structure of Opportunity and Social Mobility in India: Who Becomes an Engineering Student?

Rising inequality alongside rapid economic growth reinforces the need to examine patterns of social mobility in India. Are children from less well-off sections also able to rise to higher-paying positions, newly created by the growing economy, or are these positions going mainly to established elites? Powered in particular by the software industry, no sector has grown as fast as engineering in India. Examining the social origins of students at a range of engineering colleges, including higher- and lower-ranked ones, provides a useful lens for understanding how the new opportunities have been availed by different social segments. These results provide some grounds for optimism: women, scheduled castes, and sons and daughters of agriculturists have improved upon historical trends. However, the rural-urban divide remains deep: the more rural one is the lower are one’s chances of getting into any engineering college. Multiple simultaneous handicaps – being poor and rural or scheduled caste and rural – virtually reduce these chances to zero. Improving education quality together with better information provision and more accessible career advice are critical for making opportunity more equitably available.