Based on an empirical study conducted in a ‘semi-urban’ area in a district of Uttar Pradesh, the present paper attempts to unravel the complexities of school choice, caste and gender in an emerging local educational market. The low cost private schooling market is supposed to provide variety of educational options to parents. However, in the education market choosing a school is not a neutral process. The process of educational decision making is a ‘socially charged’ activity (Saporito and Lareau, 1999) and is influenced by a number of factors such as income, occupation, parental educational level and experience and number of school going children. Bourdieu (1973) points out that class and class cultures as well as economic capital and cultural capital possessed by the family plays an important role in facilitating or impeding children’s or parental negotiation with the process of schooling. The present study draws upon Bourdieu’s argument that parents belonging to different classes attach different values and meaning to education and the investment in the schooling of children is influenced by parental expectations and hopes of what they will get in future. The paper also argues that marketization of education has led to the widening of educational inequalities across social groups in the country and it has serious ramifications for the education of SC and girls as they remain marginalised in the domain of education. Across social category a hierarchy of choice and aspiration can be seen which set different pathways of education for boys and girls.
