SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS SCALE

- Assessment of socioeconomic status (SES) is an important aspect in community

based studies.
- Evaluation of SES of a family would mean the categorization of the family in respect
of defined variables such as, education, occupation, economic status, physical assets,
social position etc.
- Several methods or scales have 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, and
• Bharadwaj scale 2001(1-7).
- However, social transformation and fast growing economy have rendered these scales
ineffective in measuring the SES over the years.
- Further, steady inflation and consequent fall in the value of currency make the
economic criteria in the scale less relevant.
- The most widely accepted scale for urban populations has been proposed by
Kuppuswamy in India in 1976.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS SCALE (URBAN)

By B. Kuppuswamy (1962)

- was developed for only those subjects who reside in urban areas
- This scale contains
• Manual
• two information blanks (one for the person-concerned and second for the
father or guardian) and
• Score card
- The social stratification is based on three main variables:
• Education,
• Occupation and
• Income
- For each factor there are seven plausible alternatives which can be selected by the
potential subjects.
- the range of scores which can be obtained is from 3 to27
- The norms which were established can only be applicablefor urban population and
cannot be used for a rural population
- In addition to this, the highest levelof income which is shown by Kuppuswamy is also
inconsistent across various economic groups in the present time
 - Scoring: The information is collected in the devised Information-blanks and with the
help of the score card the status score is obtained. On the basis of the total score, the
respective class is found out.

Class Categorization

Total Score Socioeconomic Class

26 – 29 Upper (I)
16 – 25 Upper Middle (II)
11 – 15 Middle (III)
05 – 10 Lower Middle (IV)
<4 Lower (V)

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 canonly be used for rural
subjects.
- The reliability of the scale was found to be very high(r = 0.93).
- Scoring: After filling the information-blank, and scoring the individualitems, the total
score is summed up.With the help of the key provided inthe manual, total score is
interpretedin terms of the class:

Class Categorization

Total score Social class

Above 43 Upper Class (I)
33-42 Upper Middle Class (II)
24-32 Middle Class (III)
13-23 Lower Middle Class (IV)
Below 13 Lower Class (V)