Working women and caste in India: A study of social disadvantage using\n feature attribution

Women belonging to the socially disadvantaged caste-groups in India have\nhistorically been engaged in labour-intensive, blue-collar work. We study\nwhether there has been any change in the ability to predict a woman's\nwork-status and work-type based on her caste by interpreting machine learning\nmodels using feature attribution. We find that caste is now a less important\ndeterminant of work for the younger generation of women compared to the older\ngeneration. Moreover, younger women from disadvantaged castes are now more\nlikely to be working in white-collar jobs.\n