You Will Never Believe These Bizarre Truth Of Social Mobility.

The ability of people to migrate between the economic spectrum during their lifetime and between generations is referred to as social mobility. In low-social-mobility cultures like ours, a person's background often influences the highest level of schooling, the sort of employment they will do, and the amount of money they will make.

India's Social Mobility.

India is ranked 76th in the World Economic Forum's Social Mobility Index (2020-21), which is a comprehensive assessment of 82 global economies' performance on five important characteristics of social mobility.

Recent trends show how vulnerabilities have already had a significant impact on job opportunities and, as a result, wages generated for a large segment of the population, but the issue is only getting worse as a result of the pandemic. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, almost 300 million children in 1.4 million schools across the country have been affected.

The young from low-income families and those living in rural regions have been the hardest hit, as there are significant barriers to transitioning to digital learning, such as a lack of smartphones, computers, and internet access. In this time of crisis, the government, CSR, and social sector groups around the country are working hard to develop reforms and efforts to reduce the impact on education, learning inequities, and job losses.

According to a large study based on the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS), nearly 75% of white-collar parents' children also ended up in white-collar, skilled, or semi-skilled employment. And about 60% of children born to manual laborers ended up working in low-wage jobs.

Children born to salaried and self-employed professionals are more likely to pursue higher education and better-status employment, according to a 2013 study that looked at three separate occupational "silos" – engineering, business management, and higher civil services.

Social Mobility And School Education

Both the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017 and the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2019 demonstrate that rural youth have significant learning gaps. According to the NAS findings, learning outcomes are much poorer for teenagers from SC, ST, and other low-income families. Out-of-school rates are higher among youth from traditionally marginalized or religious minority groups, as well as girls from economically disadvantaged households. While gross enrollment ratios (GERs) are high in primary school and relatively high in upper primary school, they begin to decline in secondary and higher secondary school for both girls and boys and across social groups, according to data from the Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE).

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to Improve Employment.

With 93 percent of India's workforce employed in the unorganized sector, all efforts targeted at increasing employment and livelihoods must be supplemented. Aside from the government's emphasis on skill development, there is also a need to concentrate on talent development. i.e., assisting young people in pursuing occupations that are a good fit for them, regardless of their background, rather than just being able to do the bare minimum.

This necessitates incremental or distinct corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives from those necessary solely for talent development. CSR solutions should address the underlying issues that poor youth encounter on their path to better livelihoods and social mobility.