The New Frontier: Merit vs. Caste in the Indian IT Sector
Role
Marilyn Fernandez (Author)
Files
Description
Does the burgeoning Indian Information Technology (IT) sector represent a deviation from the historical arc of caste inequality or has it become yet another site of discrimination? Those who claim that the sector is caste-free believe that IT is an equal opportunity employer, and that the small Dalit footprint is due to the want of merit. But they fail to consider how caste inequality sneaks in by being layered on socially constructed ‘pure merit’, which favours upper castes and other privileged segments, but handicaps Dalits and other disadvantaged groups. In this book, Fernandez describes how the practice of pure and holistic merit are deeply embedded in the social, cultural, and economic privileges of the dominant castes and classes, and how caste filtering has led to the reproduction of caste hierarchies and consequently the small Dalit footprint in Indian IT.
ISBN
0199479496
Publication Date
12-12-2017
Publisher
OUP India
Disciplines
Sociology
Recommended Citation
Fernandez, Marilyn, "The New Frontier: Merit vs. Caste in the Indian IT Sector" (2017). Faculty Book Gallery. 386.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/faculty_books/386
Comments
Read chapter one here, currently located in the Sociology section of Scholar Commons.