Socioeconomica The Scientific Journal for Theory and Practice of Socio-economic Development

2015, 4(7): 167-174

Pregled
Review
UDC: 316.3:330.3:1e(540)
DOI : dx.doi.org/10.12803/SJSECO.4711915
JEL: A14, E31

REVISED SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS SCALE FOR

URBAN AND RURAL INDIA REVISION FOR 2015
Revidirana drutveno-ekonomska skala statura urbane i
ruralne Indije Revizija za 2015

Guru Raj M.S.

Institute of Medical Sicences and Reseach Centre Bangalore
Department of Community Medicine Sapthagiri

Shilpa S.
Institute of Medical Sicences and Reseach Centre Bangalore
Department of Community Medicine Sapthagiri

Maheshwaran, R.
Institute of Medical Sicences and Reseach Centre Bangalore
Department of Community Medicine Sapthagiri

Prishtina

The health status of any country depends on the socio economic status (SES)
and the per capita income of the citizens of that country. The SES also decides the
affordability and utilization of the health facilities.
Socioeconomic status (SES) refers to an individuals position within a
hierarchical social structure, which is one of the important determinants of health status.
Composite scales are generally used to measure the SES, which has a combination of
social and economic variables.
Several studies namely hospital and community based require assessment of
socio-economic status of an individual/family. This reflects the affordability of health
services, necessities and purchasing power of the same. Several methods or scales have

Kontakt autora: drgurums@gmail.com. Autori izjavljuju da nemaju znaajne materijalne ili finansijske interese koji se
odnose na istraivanje opisano u ovom radu. Takoe, autori izjavljuju da je podneti lanak njihov originalan rad i da
nakon izdavanja nita od sadrine nee predstavljati povredu autorskog prava. Rad primljen 25.03.2015. godine. Odobren
za objavljivanje 05.05.2015. godine. The authors declare that they have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to
the research described in this paper. Also, the authors declare that the submitted paper is their original work and that, upon
publication, nothing contained in it will not constitute an infringement of any copyright. Paper received 25.03.2015. Approved
05.05.2015.

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Revised socio-economic status scale for urban and rural India Revision for 2015

been proposed for classifying different populations by socioeconomic status: Rahudkar

scale 1960, Udai Parikh scale 1964, Jalota Scale 1970, Kulshrestha scale 1972,
Kuppuswamy scale 1976, Shrivastava scale 1978, Bharadwaj scale 2001.
Kuppuswamy classification is used in urban and peri urban areas which consider
the education of the head of family, occupation of head of the family and per capita
monthly income. Uday Pareekh classification is used for rural areas which takes into
account following characteristics namely caste, occupation of family head, education of
family head, and level of social participation of family head, landholding, housing, farm
power, material possessions and type of family. B.G Prasads classification, Standard of
living index and poverty line assessment are used in both urban and rural areas.
Standard of living indices(SLI) is based on following items- type of house, own/
rented house, possession of agricultural land, irrigated land, possession of live stalk,
separate kitchen, fuel used for cooking, source of lighting, source of drinking water,
type of toilet, items owned by the family e.g. cooker, TV, telephone. Measurement of
poverty line is based on the following Scoreable Socio- Economic indicators: Size of
operational landholding, Type of house, Availability of clothes, Food security,
Sanitation, Ownership of consumer durables, Literacy status, Status of household labour
force, Means of livelihood, Status of children (going to school),Type of indebtedness,
Reason for migration from household and Preference for financial assistance.
However, social transformation and fast growing economy have rendered these
scales ineffective in measuring the SES at present. Hence considering present factors
two most commonly used classifications i.e. Kuppuswamy classification and the B G
Prasad classification has been revised.This revision enables and equips community
related scientists in their quest for socioeconomic status.

1. Kuppuswamys socio-economic status scale revision for 2015

The Kuppuswamy scale proposed in 1976, measures the SES of an individual
based on three variables namely, education and occupation of the head of the household
and income of the family.5Of the three variables, education and occupation of the head
of the household do not change frequently with time. However, the steady inflation and
the resultant devaluation of the rupee necessitate periodic revisions of the income
variable. The previous revisions of the scale were done in the years 1998 and 2007.
Need for revision: Realizing the value of this important tool we need to keep
this updated as the price index is increasing (as this scale is consumer price index
based). If it is not revised it will lose its utility. Mishra, undertook the important task of
revision of family income per month for 1998 using base year 1982=100.Presently the
base year has been changed from 1982 to current base year 2001.
The changes in the income scale are proportional to the change in the Consumer
Price Index Numbers for Industrial WorkersCPI (IW). The CPI values are interpreted
with reference to a particular base year. The previous base years were 1960, 1982 and
2001. The latest CPI-(IW) available for January 2015 has been calculated taking 2001
as the base year. We have attempted updating the income scale for January 2015 using
the corresponding CPI-(IW) value. To begin with we calculated the income scale for the
selected years 1982 and 2001 which coincides with change in base year for calculation
of CPI by applying the appropriate conversion factors on the original scale (Table 1).
We have presented the values for the current base year 2001, which facilitates
the easier updating of the income scale every year or even every month based on the

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2015, 4(7): 167-174

CPI revisions. The researcher has to calculate the multiplication factor for the period of
research by dividing the CPI value for the period by 100 (base value at 2001).
All India Average Consumer Price Index Numbers for Industrial Workers (Base
2001=100) shows general index as 254 on January 2015 .
The income scale of 2001 is then multiplied by the multiplication factor to
update the scale for the desired period. For example, the CPI value as on January 2015
is 254. So the multiplication factor for January 2015 is 254/100=2.54.Multiplying the
income scale of 2001 by 2.54 updates the scale for January 2015 (Table 1).
It is the responsibility of the researchers to take note of the periodic revisions in
the CPI values before attempting socioeconomic classification of their study population.
This method makes it easy for the researcher to update the income scale to the latest
available CPI values.

Table 1. Proposed updation of kuppuswamy classification of socioeconomic

statusjanuary 2015
I. Education
S.No
Education of the head Score
1 Profession or Honors 7
2 Graduate or post graduate 6
3 Intermediate or post high school diploma 5
4 High school certificate 4
5 Middle school certificate 3
6 Primary school certificate 2
7 Illiterate 1

II. Ocupation
S.No
Occupation of the head Score
1 Profession 10
2 Semi-Profession 6
3 Clerical, Shop-owner 5
4 Skilled worker 4
5 Semi-skilled worker 3
6 Unskilled worker 2
7 Unemployed 1

III. Income Family income per Family income per Family income per Family income per
Score
S.No mont in Rs(1976) mont in Rs(1976) mont in Rs(1976) mont in Rs(1976)
1 2000 3319 15197 38600 12
2 1000-199 1659-3318 7595-15196 19291-38599 10
3 750-999 1244-1658 5694-7594 14463-19290 6
4 500-749 829-1243 3793-5693 9634-14462 4
5 300-499 497-828 2273-3792 5773-9633 3
6 101-299 167-496 761-2272 1933-5772 2
7 100 166 760 1932 1

IV. Total Score

Socioeconomic Class
Score
26-29 Uppe (I)
16-25 Upper Middle (II)
11-15 Lower Middle (III)
5-10 Upper Lower (IV)
<5 Lower (V)

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 Guru Raj M.S. | Shilpa S. | Maheswaran R.
Revised socio-economic status scale for urban and rural India Revision for 2015

2. Limitations
There is an overemphasis on income (no scale is ever complete in assessing
actual SES and they are only at the best surrogates and generate uniformity in spite of
limitations) rather than educational and occupational factors, but nevertheless income
commensurate with education and occupation. As AICPI value will be updated at
frequent intervals there is need for simultaneous updating of all socio-economic
classifications which consider income as a parameter.

3. Revised socio-economic status scale (Rural) by Udai Pareek and

G. Trivedi (1964)

Attempts to examine the socio-economic status for the rural or mixed population
only;
This scale consists of a manual and one information blank ;
This scale has nine factors which assess the socio-economic status of the
individual:
Caste;
Occupation;
Education;
Social participation;
Land;
House;
Farm powers;
Material possession and
Family.
This scale does not emphasize the economic aspect and can only be used for
rural subjects. The reliability of the scale was found to be very high(r = 0.93).

Table 2. Class categorization

Grade Category Score on scale

A Upper class Above 43
B Upper middle class 33-42
C Middle class 24-32
D Lower middle class 13-23
E Lower class Below 13

4. Scoring

After filling the information-blank, and scoring the individual items, the total
score is summed up. With the help of the key provided, total score is interpreted in
terms of the class (Table 2).

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2015, 4(7): 167-174

Table 3. Revised Udai Pareek socio-economic status scale (rural)

Components Weighted score Components Weighted score

A. Caste E. Social participation
Schedule caste 1 None 0
Lower caste 2 Member of one organization 1
Member of more than one
Artisan caste 3 2
organization
Office holder in such a
Agriculture caste 4 3
organization
Prestige caste 5 Wide public leader 4
Dominant caste 6 G. House
B. Occupation No house 0
None 0 Hut 1
Laborer 1 Kutcha house 2
Caste occupation 2 Mixed house 3
Business 3 Pucca house 4
Independent profession 4 Mansion 5
Cultivation 5 H. Farm power
Service 6 No draught animals 1
C. Education 1-2 draught animals 2
Illiterate 0 3-4 draught animals 4
Can read only 1 5-6 draught animals 6
Can read and write 2 I. Material possessions
Primary 3 Bulloc cart 0
Middle 4 Cycle 1
High school 5 Radio 2
Graduate 6 Chairs 3
And above 7 Mobile phone 4
D. Land Television 5
No land 0 Refrigerators 6
Less than 1 acre 1 J. Family type
1 5 acre 2 Single 1
5 10 acre 3 Joint 2
10 15 acre 4 Extended 3
15 20 acre 5 Siye up to 5 2
20 and above 6 Any other distinctive features 2

5. B.G. Prasads socio-economic status scale revision for 2015

BG Prasads classification, Standard of living index and poverty line assessment
are used in both urban and rural areas. BG Prasads classification is based on per capita
monthly income.
The advantage with BG Prasad's classification is that it takes into consideration
only the income as a variable and it is easy to calculate and unlike the commonly used
Kuppuswamy scale and later its modification, the modified version of Kuppuswamy
scale and Pareekh scale, the Prasad's classification is applicable both for urban as well
as rural families. Moreover, this classification can be applied for all sections of the
society.
This classification was developed in 1961, modified in 1968 and 1970 by Prasad
B G. It was later modified by Kumar due to the inflation in economy in 1993-94.
Currently year 2001 is taken as the base year by the ministry of labour, Gov. of India.

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Revised socio-economic status scale for urban and rural India Revision for 2015

Linking factors which link the AICPI between 2 years i.e between 1961 and 1982 as
well as between 1982 and 2001 are available.

5.1. BG Prasads classification is based on the following factors:

Per capita monthly income = total monthly income of the family/total members
of family.
All India Average Consumer Price Index,
Multiplication factor or Correction factor.
Multiplication factor is derived by multiplying the linking factor between 1960
and 1982 i.e. 4.63 and the linking factor between 1982 and 2001 i.e. 4.93 (as 2001 is
considered as the base year) and AICPI for the base year 2015 i.e. 254 (as of
January2015). The product thus obtained is divided by 100.
In the next step the product is multiplied by the income limits of original BG
Prasads classification. Thus the new income limits are obtained after taking into
consideration, the correction factor and the latest AICPI (Refer to Table).

Table 4. Proposed updation of B.G. Prasads classification of socioeconomic

statusjanuary 2015

Per capita monthly income

Per capita monthly income(Modified
(Modified PRASADS
Per capita monthly income PRASADS CLASSIFICATION)
Socio-economic CLASSIFICATION)
(PRASADS
Classification with Formulae
CLASSIFICATION-1961)
Lower Limit Upper limit Lower limit Upper limit

I 100 & above (MF# x100) Infinity 5798 Infinity

II 50-99 (MF x 50) (MFx100)-1 2899 5797

III 30-49 (MF x 30) (MF x 50)-1 1739 2898

IV 15-29 (MF x 15) (MF x 30)-1 870 1738

V <15 0 (MF X 15)-1 0 869

#MF=Multiplication Factor = 4.93 x 4.63* x AICPI**/100

*Linking Factor between 1982 and 2001 Series for the AICPI** is 4.63
**AICPI for January 2015=254 {All-India Average Consumer Price Index
Numbers for Industrial Workers (Base: 2001=100)}.

Number is rounded off to nearest 10 rupees after multiplication with MF.

LIMITATIONS

As AICPI value will be updated at frequent intervals there is need for

simultaneous updating of all socio-economic classifications which consider income as a
parameter.

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2015, 4(7): 167-174

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*****

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