Is caste disappearing in urban India? Illustrate your answer with examples. (Answer in 250 words)

Urbanisation has eroded ritual hierarchy and public practices of purity and pollution. Metropolitan anonymity brings castes together in public transport, eateries and corporate workplaces, and inter-caste marriages are rising among the educated urban middle class, though nationally only about 5% of marriages are inter-caste (India Human Development Survey).

Persistence in Private Life Caste has adapted rather than disappeared. Endogamy persists, visible in matrimonial advertisements and caste-specific matchmaking portals, and caste associations (sabhas) run community halls and professional networks in cities.

Occupational Segregation Sanitation, sewer work and hazardous manual scavenging remain disproportionately assigned to Dalit sub-castes such as the Valmikis, despite the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. Formal hiring is not caste-blind either: Thorat and Attewell's field study found that applicants with Dalit or Muslim names received fewer interview calls than equally qualified upper-caste Hindu applicants.

Residential Segregation Sukhadeo Thorat and colleagues' 2015 study of Delhi NCR found Dalit and Muslim applicants far more often refused rental housing, through vegetarian-only conditions or open identity screening by landlords and resident welfare associations.

Political Mobilisation In urban municipal and state elections, parties still court caste-based voting blocs and distribute tickets by local caste arithmetic.

Therefore, caste is not disappearing in urban India but transforming: its ritual dimensions have receded, while it persists through endogamy, networks, housing segregation and political identity.