Paper short abstract:

Using a recent household survey data on education, this paper discusses the regional, socioeconomic and gender inequalities in access to higher education and variations in family investment in therein among Muslim youth in India.

Paper long abstract:

Despite being a significant religious community, Muslims remain behind other Socio-Religious-Cultural (SRC) Groups in education, specifically in higher education in India. It is often argued that the massive expansion of higher education in India is not helping Muslim youth in accessing it. While some studies have examined the inequality in access to higher education among Muslims vis-à-vis other religious groups in India, research on disparities among Muslim youth is sparse. Using a nationally representative household survey data on education, this paper discusses the regional, socioeconomic and gender disparities in access to higher education and variations in family investment in higher education among Muslim youth in India. We have estimated how the socioeconomic and demographic factors determine the likelihood of Muslim youth attending higher education in India using a logit regression model. We find significant gender, socioeconomic and regional inequality in access to higher education among Muslim youth in India. For instance, male Muslim students in India are more likely to access higher education by 4.4 percentage points than their female counterparts, with an additional disadvantage in rural regions. Likewise, analysis shows that youth from rich Muslim households have a significantly higher chance of accessing higher education than poor households. Inequality is also evident in the family expenditure on higher education among Muslim households from different socioeconomic setups. The findings suggest that intra-religious group inequality in higher education among youth warrants greater attention in both public policy and research on educational inequality in India.