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I'm seconding this for equivalents in the US. I don't know about conditions for bright working class Indians, I have no idea if they have a decent shot of making it into the middle class and having a decent life. I do know that truckers, nurses, teachers, tradesmen, cops, restaurant managers, accountants, paralegals, is not even scratching the surface of ways Americans can make a decent living with no rat race involved, and without exceptional talent. 'Meritocracy' in the US context mostly just makes childhoods worse.
I'd say they do. Med schools are full of students who come from not particularly well-off families. That ex of mine, who I lamented? Her dad was a minor clerk in a government post. Her mother was a housewife, who inherited his post when he died (that's the local approach to job security, they try and give the post to NOK if viable). Absolute middle of middle class by Indian standards, which means they lived in a small apartment and owned a rickety old car instead of a motorbike. She attended a significantly more reputable med school than I did, even if it wasn't the best of the best. Shame that my academic performance quickly eclipsed hers, and there's a reason I'm training in the UK and she's not. As much as she nearly ruined my life and drove me to near insanity, I loved her, and I mostly wish her well.
Anyway. She's a good representation of the typical med student in India. I'd be considered to have come from a relatively privileged background. Most of them come from humble backgrounds, and are the first doctors in their family. Parents were clerks, farmers, small businessmen, minor merchants, average engineers and so on. A doctor in the family was a big fucking deal to them.
In my cohort of about a hundred med students, maybe a dozen had medical parents? I'd say that that's the system working as intended.
(I will protest that I would have gotten into much better med school if my ADHD has been treated while still in school. Oh well, one of the many things I've forgiven my parents for. They're not perfect, they did their best.)
In other words, if you were a 120 IQ+ student in India, regardless of family background, you have a fair shot at climbing further up the rungs of the social ladder. It won't be easy, by any means, but it's expected.
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