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Reservation, Marriage & Social Mobility: An Intergenerational Study
By Social Mobility Research Unit · Published 30 June 2025 · 9 min read
How endogamous marriage patterns and reservation interact to shape intergenerational mobility outcomes.
Abstract
An intergenerational mobility study exploring how identity-locked category systems interact with endogamous marriage patterns to constrain long-term social mobility, and proposes structural decoupling.
Key Findings
- ✓Inter-category marriage rate remains below 6% nationally.
- ✓Category-linked identity locks weaken cross-category economic mobility.
- ✓Recommends removing category tags from all public-service delivery.
Open-access research paper · Free to read, no paywall
Context and question
The society desk took up “Reservation, Marriage & Social Mobility: An Intergenerational Study” because the claim at its centre is repeated constantly in Indian public life and almost never accompanied by a number. Where a figure exists in the official record, this paper reproduces it. Where the record is silent, the paper says so instead of filling the gap with an estimate that later hardens into a fact.
An intergenerational mobility study exploring how identity-locked category systems interact with endogamous marriage patterns to constrain long-term social mobility, and proposes structural decoupling.
Method and evidence base
How this was put together. Social Mobility Research Unit assembled the record over successive drafts, discarding any figure that could not be tied to a document with a date on it. The paper is written to be checked: a reader who disagrees should be able to locate the same source and argue with the interpretation rather than with the number. Version dated 30 June 2025.
How endogamous marriage patterns and reservation interact to shape intergenerational mobility outcomes.
The findings, read one by one
Inter-category marriage rate remains below 6% nationally. The important part is the direction of travel rather than the absolute figure. It has not corrected itself across successive review periods. A remedy that does not close the gap it was written to close is no longer a remedy; it is an inherited administrative habit.
Category-linked identity locks weaken cross-category economic mobility. On its own that reads like a society technicality. Set against the stated purpose of the provision, it is the whole argument — a corrective that was meant to be time-bound has become the permanent shape of the system, and no review cycle has been asked to justify it against outcomes.
Recommends removing category tags from all public-service delivery. Note what this does not say. It does not claim discrimination has ended, and it does not propose removing support. It claims the proxy in use has drifted far enough from the thing it proxies that the proxy itself is now the problem.
The strongest objection
The objection worth taking seriously is that any need test can be gamed through under-reported income. It can. So can the present system, through forged certificates and creamy-layer evasion, and the answer in both cases is the same: verification against tax, land and utility records, with penalties that apply to the affluent as readily as to anyone else.
What the paper asks for
Policy implication. For society, the practical demand from this paper is narrow and testable: publish disaggregated outcome data annually, sunset any provision that cannot justify itself against that data, and migrate the remainder to a verified need index reviewed in public. None of that requires a constitutional rupture; most of it requires only that existing figures stop being withheld.
Limits, corrections and reuse
Caveats. Reservation data in India is fragmented across ministries, states and institutions, and “Reservation, Marriage & Social Mobility: An Intergenerational Study” inherits that fragmentation. Readers should treat every figure as a floor for further inquiry rather than a settled total. The paper is released open access under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to the Reservation Hatao Andolan official.
Analysis: Reservation, Marriage & Social Mobility: An Intergenerational Study
“Reservation, Marriage & Social Mobility: An Intergenerational Study” is filed under the society track of the movement's open library because the question it tests is measurable, not rhetorical.
How endogamous marriage patterns and reservation interact to shape intergenerational mobility outcomes. Published 30 June 2025 by Social Mobility Research Unit, the paper runs to roughly 9 min of reading and is released open access so that students, journalists and policy staff can cite it directly.
What each finding actually shows
Finding 1 · Society
The record here reads: Inter-category marriage rate remains below 6% nationally. Taken alone it looks like an administrative detail; placed next to the rest of the file it describes a pattern that repeats year after year without anyone being answerable for it.
Finding 2 · Society
Category-linked identity locks weaken cross-category economic mobility. Read against the stated intent of the provision, the gap between design and delivery is the finding — not the individual beneficiaries, who are simply using the system as written.
Finding 3 · Society
Recommends removing category tags from all public-service delivery. Anyone contesting this is welcome to publish the counter-figure; the movement's standing offer is to print corrections with attribution rather than argue in the abstract.
Why it matters for reform
The reform conclusion follows from the evidence rather than from sentiment: replace inherited category tags with a verified need index so that the same rupee of support reaches the household that has none of the advantages the tag was meant to proxy.
Sources, method and limits
Figures in “Reservation, Marriage & Social Mobility: An Intergenerational Study” are drawn from publicly available material current to 2025 — parliamentary answers, commission reports, university and PSU disclosures, RTI responses and court records — and are reproduced for public education under Article 19(1)(a). Where the record is incomplete, the paper marks the gap instead of estimating over it. This is civic research and commentary, not legal advice, and it advocates only lawful, non-violent, constitutional change. Reuse is permitted under CC BY 4.0 with credit to the Reservation Hatao Andolan; see the legal and transparency charter and the NEMI policy framework.
