India’s Lower Castes Seek Social Progress in Global Job Market

For 3000 years, India operated with a caste system; from birth, Indians understood their status and role in society. Prohibited by law, the caste system remains a source for discrimination in India. By law, the public sector and public universities set aside a percentage of jobs for people born into the lowest castes, and activists encourage similar affirmative-action programs within the private sector as well, both Indian firms and multinationals. Interactions with foreigners through immigration, outsourcing and foreign investment have gradually loosened the stranglehold of castes. But more than 85 percent of employees in India’s largest technology and outsourcing firms tend to come from the higher casts, according to one study. People linked to unprivileged castes account for about 70 percent of India’s population. The rigid system of categorizing people, regardless of skill or intellect, can only weaken over time, as a result of India’s democratic political system combined with increasing awareness by multinational recruiters and foreign politicians. – YaleGlobal