Does Caste Determine Wealth in Today's India?

As India plans to count caste membership in its census for the first time in almost 100 years, how predictive of personal wealth is one's standing in the country's millennia-old social hieracy? While caste lines have blurred over the decades, there is still a clear advantage to being upper caste when regarding wealth distribution in the country. Not the lowest castes – called Dalits, Scheduled Caste and sometimes Untouchables – are worst off in terms of wealth, but India's tribespeople, who like Scheduled Caste are recognized as such by the country's constitution.

Data from the National Family Health Survey shows shows that 46 percent of members of Scheduled Tribes in India fall under the country's lowest wealth quintile, compared to 26 percent of Scheduled Caste members. Additional disadvantaged castes, officially called Other Backward Class, only see 16 percent of their members in this category. On the other hand, Indians that don't fall within these three categories have a one-in-three chance of being in India's highest wealth quintile. This number falls to 19 percent for Other Backward Class, 12 percent for Scheduled Caste and just 5 percent for Scheduled Tribes.