Safer among their own Caste? Everyday Discrimination and Mental Health among Community-dwelling Older Adults in Rural India

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Social Indicators Research

Abstract

This study investigates how caste identity and village-level caste composition shape experiences of everyday discrimination, and mental health among older adults in rural India. Using nationally representative data from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (2017–2019), we estimate multivariate and multi-level models accounting for individual, household, and village characteristics. We find that individuals from marginalised caste groups report higher levels of everyday discrimination and depressive symptoms compared to upper-caste individuals. Village-level caste composition is closely associated with everyday social experiences. Older adults tend to report lower levels of everyday discrimination when residing in villages where their own caste group forms the numerical majority, with particularly pronounced differences for marginalised groups. Patterns for depressive symptoms, while broadly consistent with caste-based disparities, show more modest variation across village types. Across all specifications, everyday discrimination is strongly associated with higher depressive symptoms, suggesting that differential exposure to everyday social interactions constitutes an important pathway linking caste-based social structure to mental health outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of local social context in shaping everyday social experiences, with broader implications for the psychosocial well-being of ageing populations. Results are robust to alternative measures of everyday discrimination, exclusion of Scheduled Tribes, and to continuous measures of village caste composition, with mediating pathways examined using the Karlson–Holm–Breen (KHB) method.

Publication Date

30-4-2026

Publisher

Springer

Volume

Vol.183

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