What Is Distinctive about Religious Inequality? Challenges and Opportunities for Development Policy

What difference does it make, if any, both analytically and from a policy response perspective, when the basis for the type of social inequality is religious – that is, when one identifies with, or engages in the practices of, a particular faith-based community (or several, or none at all) as opposed to a particular nationality, racial, occupational, caste, gender or disability group? Why might it be especially difficult for religious inequality to be redressed by development ‘policy’? These questions could be answered in a number of ways, but in this chapter, I seek to do so by engaging briefly with four development policy domains within which the distinctive salience of ‘religion’ as a basis for durable inequality, becomes apparent, presenting unique challenges but also potentially unique opportunities.