HOW TO DETERMINE BACKWARDNESS ?
Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of capital throws light on a distinct way to the understanding of class and social stratification by emphasizing a multidimensional approach. He argues that an individual’s class location is shaped not merely by economic factors but by the interplay of four types of capital: economic, cultural, social, and symbolic. Economic capital refers to material assets like wealth, property, and income, which directly influence access to resources and opportunities. However, this alone is wanting to capture the complex mechanism of social positioning. Cultural capital, encompassing knowledge, skills, education, and lifestyle preferences, plays a significant role in shaping class identity. It exists in embodied (personal skills), objectified (material cultural possessions), and institutionalized (academic qualifications) forms. These distinctions highlight how cultural practices, often inherited or acquired, remain with the elite section of society.
The other forms of capital further deepen this complexity. Social capital, defined by an individual’s network of relationships and connections, facilitates social mobility by capitalizing interpersonal bonds for access to resources or opportunities. Symbolic capital, meanwhile, represents the prestige and recognition granted by society, often legitimizing one’s social status. For instance, in India children from South Bombay has been awarded a prestige by the society by being called SOBO kids (symbolic capital), they have access to social contacts and cultural arts which the people from backward region are highly unlikely to have. Through this safe deductions can be drawn that geography affects the backwardness experienced by an individual. In the Indian context, these forms of capital intertwine with historical and cultural dynamics, particularly the caste system, to shape class structures. Bourdieu’s framework, thus, impel us to move beyond economic measures and adopt a nuanced lens to understand the multifaceted nature of power and social mobility in a motley society.
There is a general assumption that a person owning one type of capital can convert it to the other without any exertion, this generates loopholes in the current argument of multifaceted poverty. Building upon the integrated analysis, we can further enrich the analysis by incorporating Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach. Sen’s framework introduces critical concepts such as functionings and capabilities, where functionings refer to the various states of being and doing (for instance, being healthy or literate), and capabilities represent the real freedoms or opportunities to achieve these functionings. This distinction is fundamental, as it shifts the focus from mere resource endowment to the capability set the spectrum of achievable states that a person can feasibly reach.
A key element in Sen’s approach is the role of conversion factors. These are the personal, social, and environmental variables that determine how effectively an individual can transform available resources into valuable functionings. For instance, while two individuals might possess similar economic capital, differences in conversion efficiency perhaps due to variations in health, social discrimination, or infrastructure can result in significantly divergent outcomes in their quality of life.
Further, Sen highlights the issue of adaptive preferences, wherein individuals in constrained environments may adjust their aspirations downward, thereby masking the true extent of their deprivation. This phenomenon challenges conventional measures of well-being and underscores the importance of accounting for both instrumental freedom (the means to pursue various functionings) and substantive freedom (the actual capability to achieve those functionings). For instance, Consider two scholarship students: Student A, with rich cultural, social, and symbolic capital, benefits from supportive networks, enhancing their academic outcomes. In contrast, Student B lacks these advantages, so even with identical economic resources, conversion factors hinder their progress. This demonstrates how Bourdieu’s and Sen’s perspectives together reveal deep inequality.
Integrating these insights into our analysis of backwardness, we see that a comprehensive evaluation must move beyond traditional economic indicators. It should incorporate multi-dimensional indices that capture not only income but also indicators of health, education, and social participation essentially, the tangible outputs of an individual’s capability set. By addressing these conversion factors and mitigating adaptive preferences, policy-makers can better identify and dismantle the systemic barriers that perpetuate backwardness.
Ultimately, this enriched perspective reinforces that backwardness is not merely an economic deficit but a complex interplay of various capitals and the capacity to convert them into a life one values. It demands a holistic approach where enhancing both the resources available to individuals and their actual freedoms forms the cornerstone of effective, justice-oriented public policy.
A GEOGRAPHICAL SOLUTION ?
Geography plays a critical role in the backwardness of OBCs in India, with regional disparities affecting access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities.The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019-21) highlights that Uttar Pradesh’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) is 167 per 100,000 live births, significantly higher than Kerala’s MMR of 43. Infant mortality in Uttar Pradesh stands at 38.4 per 1,000 live births, compared to Kerala’s 6.4. Economically, the poverty rate in Uttar Pradesh is 38%, while Tamil Nadu reports a much lower rate of 25%. The Economic Survey of India (2021-22) indicates that OBCs in geographically isolated states like Chhattisgarh earn 25-30% less than those in more developed states like Tamil Nadu. Government welfare programs also show stark disparities: only 29.5% of eligible OBC students in Bihar benefit from scholarship schemes, compared to 73.9% in Kerala. Geography not only delineates physical boundaries but also shapes the structural framework within which development occurs. Regions with better infrastructure such as roads, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions naturally offer greater opportunities for social and economic advancement. In contrast, geographically isolated areas often struggle with inadequate public services and lower policy outreach, which can result in higher mortality rates, limited access to welfare programs, and reduced economic prospects. This spatial disparity creates a cycle where regions with poorer infrastructure continue to lag, reinforcing the backwardness of OBCs in those areas. Addressing these geographical challenges requires precise policy making that focus on improving regional connectivity and infrastructure, ensuring equitable access to services, and ultimately breaking the cycle of underdevelopment. These disparities highlight the compounded impact of geography on the backwardness of OBCs, emphasizing the need for targeted policy interventions.
WAY AHEAD ?
The concept of multidimensional poverty offers a sophisticated framework to address the nuanced layers of backwardness within the OBC strata in India. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), formulated by UNDP, transcends the oversimplified confines of income-based assessments by encompassing critical dimensions such as education, health, and living standards, making it particularly pertinent in a society entrenched in caste hierarchies. Drawing from Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital, backwardness cannot be assessed merely by economic capital but must consider social, cultural, and symbolic capital, which profoundly influence an individual’s societal positioning. The Indra Sawhney v. The Union of India judgment made the point that economic criteria are too blunt to be used exclusively as a determinant of backwardness and that a more granular approach, including exclusion of the “creamy layer,” is necessary. Data shows that India’s trajectory in reducing multidimensional poverty—from 55.1% in 2005-06 to 16.4% in 2019-21—demonstrates the efficacy of targeted interventions. Embedding MPI into OBC subclassification, enriched by Bourdieu’s framework supplemented by Amartya Sen’s capability approach, would illuminate intersecting deprivations and actualize the egalitarian mandates enshrined in Articles 15(4) and 16(4).
CONCLUSION
Sub Classification of backward groups in the OBCs is a moral and constitutional imperative as well as a technical exercise to make sure justice is done for the most marginalized. In authors view, it is a failure of the democracy of India that we still are not able to decipher the purpose of providing affirmative action which is not only to provide representation but also to achieve social integration of more backward within backward class with the rest of the society which is reinforced by the preamble of the constitution of India through the idea of fraternity. This mere manifestation of providing representation can never bring the people from the backward caste on par with society. For a society to be truly egalitarian there should be equality in all types of capital(economic, social, cultural & symbolic) in all strata of society and for that to happen there should be correct identification of the people who need it the most. It’s high time for our policy makers and think tanks to consider these issues or the lives suppressed, oppressed & repressed are at great injustice.
(This post has been authored by Kushagra Jaiswal, a first-year law student at NALSAR, Hyderabad)
CITE AS: Kushagra Jaiswal, ‘Beyond Economic Capital : A Multidimensional Framework Of Determining Backwardness With Obcs: Part II‘ (The Contemporary Law Forum, 26 March 2025) <https://tclf.in/2025/03/26/beyond-economic-capital-a-multidimensional-framework-of-determining-backwardness-with-obcs-part-ii/>date of access.