Caste, Social Exclusion, and Opportunities for Education in Rural Punjab

Abstract

Although caste-based social stratification and unequal access to educational opportunities coexist in several parts of South Asia, their interconnection remains underexplored in the context of Pakistan. This paper presents the key findings of qualitative case studies of three villages in central, southern, and northern Punjab. Data based on interviews with a sample of 105 high- and low-caste parents of school-going children, school heads, and key informants reveal that caste-based social exclusion refracts into limited educational opportunities for low-caste children, especially if the household remains trapped in intergenerational poverty and is spatially excluded and stigmatized. On the other hand, these children’s access to education improves with greater socioeconomic openings or wider cross-caste bridging social capital rather than only intra-caste bonding social capital. The paper uses Amartya Sen’s typology of “active” and “passive” exclusion and “unfavorable inclusion” to explain the processes that limit lower castes’ access to and their self-deselection from educational opportunity. The findings are analyzed within Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework of social capital.