Vol. 5, Issue 3, Part A (2019)

Abstract
The scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are the most marginalized sections of Indian society. The present paper using the National Sample Survey Organization’s data attempts to analyze economic disparity across the caste groups in terms of differences in income, and standards of living in rural Punjab, India. The univariate analysis shows that monthly household income for each size class of land possessed indicates that the scheduled castes households earn about two and a half times lower income than the non-scheduled castes group households. The consumption standard of the scheduled castes households is about one and a half times lower than the non-scheduled castes group households in rural Punjab. Similarly, the net investment in productive assets of the scheduled castes is eighteen times lower than the non-scheduled caste households.