KMC COLLEGE OF NURSING, MEERUT

Nursing Education

Assignment On
Socio Economic Status Scale

Submitted to: - Submitted By:-

Ms. Natasha Verma Mrs Jyoti Katiyar

Lecturer, KMC College Of Nursing M.Sc. (N) 1st Year
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)

Bibliography:
 www.scrib.in
 www.google.com
 www.slideshare.com
 www.wikipedia.com