This article investigates the interplay between housing segregation and school segregation in major Indian cities, emphasising the broader implications for urban equity. Analysis of UDISE+ and population census data reveals a positive and statistically significant association between residential segregation rooted in caste divisions and the perpetuation of caste-based school segregation in urban India. This residential segregation, stemming from the intersection of caste and class, confines socially and economically disadvantaged caste groups to nearby low-fee private schools or public schools. India’s school admissions policy, which relies on unrestricted school choice based on income, exacerbates these inequities and perpetuates caste-based segregation among schools due to persistent caste-based economic disparities in urban areas. The findings underscore the critical impact of spatial and educational segregation on urban equity, offering insights into how these forms of segregation reinforce social stratification in urban settings.

Caste is a unique marker of social stratification in India. There are significant eco- nomic inequalities and considerable disparities in educational achievements between historically disadvantaged caste groups and Others. Unequal investments in their chil- dren's human capital by caste can perpetuate income inequalities and reproduce class differences between caste groups. This paper analyses caste-based disparities in house- hold expenditure on children's school education using nationally representative social expenditure data on education from 2007–08 and 2017–18 in India. The paper uses a recentered influence function (RIF) based decomposition analysis to pinpoint the key factors underpinning the disparity in private educational expenditure between disadvantaged caste groups and Others. Further, to overcome the problem of heterogeneity of data the study also employs propensity score matching (PSM) as robustness check for the decomposition analysis. The findings from decomposition and matching approaches reveal that differences in endowments, specifically income differences, between caste groups explain most of the caste-based gap in children's human capital investments. The study has implications for public policy to address educational and economic disparities between disadvantaged caste groups (ST, SC and OBC) and Others in India.

Motivation: Although women continue to bear an unequal burden when it comes to unpaid housework and care work regardless of the level of economic progress, a systematic analysis of the gender gap in terms of the time allocated to these responsibilities has not been carried out in the context of India so far, primarily due to the lack of national-level data. Purpose: This article measures how the burden of unpaid housework and care work is shared between men and women and investigates the factors associated with the allocation of time. Methods and approach: We use the first nationally representative Time Use Survey (2019) data of India and employ Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition analysis to explain the gender gap in unpaid housework and care work. Findings: After accounting for individual characteristics and household factors, the regression analysis shows that women spend a little over three hours more per day on unpaid housework and 20 minutes more on unpaid care work than men. The decomposition analysis reveals that the differences in socioeconomic and demographic factors between men and women only contribute a small part of the average gender gap in unpaid housework and care work. In other words, most of the gap in unpaid work at home between men and women in India can be attributed to structural factors, including inadequate infrastructural support and social programmes to alleviate the burden of housework and childcare, as well as the prevalence of unobserved gender norms and practices that pin the responsibility of unpaid housework and care work on women. Policy implications: To achieve equitable distribution of unpaid work between women and men, there is a need to provide more opportunities for women to participate in remunerative paid employment. Infrastructural support and policies that can reduce the burden of time spent by women in day-to-day unpaid housework and care activities are crucial to reduce the gender gap.