Relevance: Mains: G.S paper II: Polity: International Institutions and reports
Why in news?
- The World Economic Forum, which organises the well-known annual gathering of the world’s most influential business and political decision-makers in the ski-resort of Davos (Switzerland), has come out with its first-ever Global Social Mobility Report, which has ranked India a lowly 72 out of the 82 countries profiled.
- According to the report, the Nordic economies such as Denmark and Finland top the social mobility rankings while countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Africa languish at the bottom.
What is social mobility?
- The concept of social mobility encompasses several concerns such as: Intragenerational mobility, Intergenerational mobility, Absolute income mobility, Absolute educational mobility, Relative income mobility and Relative educational mobility.
Key concerns for improving social mobility:
- Intragenerational mobility: The ability for an individual to move between socio-economic classes within their own lifetime.
- Intergenerational mobility: The ability for a family group to move up or down the socio-economic ladder across the span of one or more generations.
- Absolute income mobility: The ability for an individual to earn, in real terms, as much as or more than their parents at the same age.
- Absolute educational mobility: The ability for an individual to attain higher education levels than their parents.
- Relative income mobility: How much of an individual’s income is determined by their parents’ income.
- Relative educational mobility: How much of an individual’s educational attainment is determined by their parents’ educational attainment.
How is social mobility calculated?
- The WEF’s Global Social Mobility Index assesses the 82 economies on “10 pillars” spread across the following five key dimensions of social mobility:
- Health;
- Education (access, quality and equity, lifelong learning);
- Technology;
- Work (opportunities, wages, conditions);
- Protection and Institutions (social protection and inclusive institutions).
How did India perform on each of the 10 pillars of social mobility?
- India’s overall ranking is a poor 76 out of the 82 countries considered. Thus it should not come as any surprise that India ranks lowly in individual parameters as well.