" Influenza, Famine and Occupational Mobility of Caste Groups "

The caste system introduces stickiness in the Indian labor market by restricting occupational mobility. The hierarchical system consists of jatis, each having a single hereditary occupation. These communities function like guilds, provide social capital, and restrict their members' occupational mobility over generations. Mobility away from jati-occupation implies letting go of member benefits. In this paper, I study if the 1918 influenza and famine could alter the occupational structure of caste groups by shifting its members away from their hereditary occupation and if these changes were permanent in Central Provinces and Berar.
In India, Central provinces and Berar experienced one of the highest mortality rates due to the 1918 Influenza and famine, with the death rate peaking among men aged between 20 and 40. Labor supply shocks like this often result in occupational shifts, allowing us to examine how an economic and demographic shock can move a significant section of a particular jati or group into a new occupation and what it implies for the community in the long run.
I categorize jatis into six caste groups and utilize a difference in difference model to assess the impact of the shock on population and labor market outcomes between 1901 and 1931 using Historical Indian Census Data. The influence on population by caste group by gender is studied through three channels: change in mortality, fertility, and widowhood. The labor market variables considered are the change in the proportion of workers by gender in traditional occupation and sectoral labor supply changes across caste groups by gender. The caste groups and gender are interacted with the time variable to assess the influence of this shock on different communities.