42 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
educational institutions cannot be justified, as there are poor as well as rich among them.
A long-term policy package for the reduction of income inequality and also for improving the position of the people belonging to depressed castes should include: (a) putting a ceiling on ownership of income earning assets in urban as well as rural areas, (b) continuation of substantial preferential educational facilities to socially backward people and (c) reservations in professional/technical jobs for socially weaker sections. The last two policies are necessary in view of the persisting association between hierarchy of castes and [ hierarchy of occupations in the state. Finally, time has come to think of guaranteeing a subsistence income to all the destitutes and the totally unemployed in the state to alleviate their misery.
1 See G Thimmaiah, Socio-Economic Impact of Drinking, State Lottery and Horse-Racing in Karnataka, Sterling Publishers, New Delhi, 1979.
2 Noel P Gist, "Caste Differentials in South India", American Sociologic Review, April 1954, p 130.