Inequality of Opportunity among Indian Children in attending appropriate class as per their age up to Elementary level

Background: This paper examines the inequality of opportunity among Indian children in attending appropriate class as per their age up to elementary level (Std. I-VIII) of education during 1986–2008. The socioeconomic, regional and temporal perspective in underscoring the inequality of opportunity in time-bound completion of elementary education would be imperative to achieve universalization of elementary education in effective manner.
Data & Methods: Data from the three rounds of the National Sample Survey on ‘Participation in Education’ conducted during 1986-87, 1995-96 and 2007-08 were analyzed. In order to assess inequality of opportunity in attending appropriate class at appropriate age among children across selected circumstance groups, the study used the Human Opportunity Index (HOI). The HOI synthesizes measurements of both the absolute level of opportunities in a society and how equitably those opportunities are distributed into a single indicator.
Results: Adjusting potential socio-demographic and economic characteristics, the opportunity among Indian children in attending appropriate class as per their age up to elementary level has shown an increase of 20 percentage point during 1986-2008. The opportunity gap in gender and social group is catching up gradually due to increasing coverage rate in disadvantaged