Is caste disappearing in urban India? Illustrate your answer with examples.

Urbanisation has weakened traditional caste boundaries, but has not erased caste-based inequalities. The rise in cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act from 45,995 in 2020 to 48,669 in 2024 in India, indicates that caste continues to shape social relations, albeit in transformed forms.

Caste Is Weakening In  Urban Areas 

1. Occupational De-linking: Skills increasingly replace hereditary occupations.
   a. Example: IT, services and gig work cut across caste occupations.
2. Weaker Endogamy: Education and workplace interaction expand matrimonial choice.(eg: Rise in Inter -caste marriages)
3. Urban Social Mixing: Common workplaces, universities and public spaces dilute purity-pollution barriers.
   a. Example: Metros and corporate workplaces enable routine cross-caste interaction.
4. Growing Class Identity: Income and profession increasingly shape status alongside caste.
5. Upward Mobility: Education and reservation weaken inherited socio-economic positions.
   a. Example: Growing SC/ST/OBC professional middle classes.
6. Weaker Social Control: Jati institutions exercise less authority over urban individuals.
   a. Example: Constitutional rights increasingly supersede customary restrictions.

Yet Caste Persists in New Forms

1. Matrimonial Endogamy: Caste remains influential in spouse selection.
   a. Example: Even in metros, 49% Jeevansathi users retained mandatory caste preference.
2. Housing Segregation: Caste influences access to urban housing.
   a. Example: Ahmedabad, 2025: Dalit buyer alleged flat denial after caste disclosure.
3. Campus Discrimination: Modern education has not eliminated caste prejudice. (eg: UGC complaints rose 173 (2019–20) to 378 (2023–24)).
4. Network-based Advantage: Caste networks provide jobs, business links and social capital.
   a. Example: Community-based professional and business networks.
   
   
5. Associational Caste: Traditional jati organization assumes modern institutional forms.
   a. Example: Patidar community organisations in urban Gujarat.
6. Subtle Exclusion: Explicit untouchability shifts towards indirect discrimination.
   a. Example: Surname, food habits and “community preference” in housing.

Urbanisation is producing a metamorphosis, not disappearance, of caste—from visible ritual hierarchy towards subtler inequalities embedded in marriage, housing, networks and opportunities.