Dalit business owners in India earn 16% less due to their caste, says study
Bengaluru: A study has revealed that Dalit business owners in India earn, on average, 16 percent less than other business owners, including those from other disadvantaged communities. This income gap can be solely attributed to caste, according to the research paper titled ‘It’s not who you know, but who you are: Explaining income gaps of stigmatized-caste business owners in India’, which was published earlier this week in the research journal PLOS One.
The study by researchers from India, the UK, and Australia found that social capital—a measure of "whom you know," often considered beneficial in various situations, including business—did not significantly improve the incomes of Dalit business owners.
The study employed three analytical techniques, all yielding similar results: there is a 15 to 18 percent income gap between Dalit business owners and others, which can be attributed solely to caste and not other factors like whether they live in urban or rural areas, their education, family background, or land ownership, according to Prateek Raj, an assistant professor at the IIM-Bangalore and lead member of the research team, as noted in the Telegraph.
The analysis revealed that business owners from other disadvantaged groups, such as Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Tribes, or Muslims, benefited from social capital, suggesting that those with more social capital had higher income levels. However, for Dalits (Scheduled Castes), social capital had a much smaller impact, amplifying income disparities compared to others with the same levels of social capital.
Hari Bapbuji, co-author of the paper and a professor at the University of Melbourne, noted that this is due to the stigma associated with Dalits, which affects them personally and is reinforced in social interactions.
Moreover, the study found that human capital, measured by the number of years of school or college education, provided similar income benefits to Dalit business owners as it did to other business owners. Thomas Roulet, an associate professor at the University of Cambridge and the study’s third collaborator, explained that this implies having social capital, or a network, is not as effective as having education in countering stigma.
Experts estimate that Dalits constitute between 250 million and 300 million of India’s 1.4 billion population. This research claims to be one of the first to quantify the impact of caste on business income. While the researchers had expected the effect of social capital would limit stigmatisation, the results showcased that it actually makes stigmatisation even more damaging. Raj stated that the stigma faced by Dalits might not always be explicit discrimination but could result from ingrained attitudes or biases, potentially practiced unconsciously.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
