The Impact of Parents’ Educational and Occupational Footprints on Children: Evidence From India

Abstract

This article examines the effects of parents’ educational backgrounds and career preferences on their children’s educational and employment opportunities in India’s various socio-religious groupings. Using information from India’s several National Sample Survey Rounds (2000–2012) and the Periodic Labour Force Survey Round 2018–2019, the article analyses co-resident father–son relationships. This study investigates the impact of a father’s occupational–educational status on the probability of their sons’ getting decent jobs. Additionally, the likelihood of completing a senior secondary and above level of education in relation to the educational backgrounds of the mother and father has been examined. For both occupational and educational attainments, this study uses the discrete choice model along with the logit equation. The findings indicate that the probability of getting jobs in the three mentioned occupations is restricted to sons whose fathers are already employed in similar occupations. In addition, there is a wide spectrum of inequity in access to jobs in these occupations among Socio religious communities. The father’s education has a significant impact on the possibility of receiving the senior secondary and above level of education. This study demonstrates a strong hierarchy across the father’s level of education, occupation, and socio-religious communities. This calls for conscious policy intervention to destabilize such a hierarchy. Communities must get a big push through their own resolve and timely and adequate interventions from the state and non-state actors.