Determinants of Human Capital: Some Reflections on Discrimination and the Law

After describing the structure of the Indian labour market that continues to exhibit a large informal labour workforce, it is pointed out that the growth of employment in the manufacturing sector is low. In this regard the significance of human capital expansion is highlighted with the aid of some of our previous work emphasising the point that it is important to look at linkages between jobs, individual employees, household and characteristics. The remarkable discovery is that identity factors, gender and religion influence human development, human capital and productive expansion of the manufacturing sector. Against this contextual setting we share results of an empirical exercise that attempts to comprehend the factors affecting human capital investment at the household level. Using data from the PLFS Survey the empirical exercise links human capital investments and caste, suggesting that human capital decisions are affected by discriminatory practices in the labour market. Given the general importance of human capital development, we go on to reflect on the role of law in mitigating discriminatory practices in the labour market - looking both at the nature of the current omissions and prospects for improvement in the future.