Dates of conference: August 23-25, 2023                                                            Venue: ISEC, Bengaluru

Panel 1: Nature of Inter-group inequality in economic sphere: sources, consequences and policies

Under this theme we discuss group inequality in human development and human poverty estimated through human development index and human poverty index. Both these indices use indicators that include per capita income, poverty, life expectancy, malnutrition, and social needs such as health status, education, and housing. We divide these indicators in two parts: (a) group inequality in income and poverty: it will delve into employment and wealth ownership. (b) group inequality in social needs: It will focus on inter-group inequality in education, health, and housing.

1. Panel 1 (a) Intergroup inequality in income and poverty and its determinants such as ownership of wealth, land and enterprises/business and employment and discrimination

In this theme the purpose is to discuss the magnitude and nature of group (within and between group) economic inequality in income and poverty with a focus on disparities along castes, gender (intersectionalities pertaining to social identity and gender), tribal’s and non-tribal’s, and between religious minorities and majorities.

The papers will also discuss the causes of inter-group inequalities in terms of general economic factors, and discrimination faced by the lower caste groups in market and non-market institutions, and particularly examines discrimination in employment, wages, farming, and business which result in unequal outcomes. The papers will discuss the employment pattern, occupation as formal and informal workers, jobs and social security among various social groups.

Some papers will discuss the impact of depletion and degradation of common property resources on the access to these resources to marginalised groups including the differential impact of environmental climate change on these groups.

The papers are also expected to discuss the theories of economic discrimination in general and caste /gender in particular for gaining insights into the motives behind discrimination.

Under this theme, the panellists will also discuss the concept and method of measuring discrimination (mainly confined to gender and caste/tribe /religion interface).

Some papers are expected to focus on the issues of reservation and reparation, the debate on reservation policies, including lessons from theories of discrimination for designing policies to overcome market and non-market discriminations.

This theme will be taken up on all the three days of the conference through parallel sessions. We expect to have about 12 parallel sessions, two Keynote addresses and special lectures on this theme.