Dear Editor,
Socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the key factors that have an influence on the health of an individual. SES status relies on multiple parameters such as education, occupation, income, and material possession. B. G. Prasad SES scale and Kuppuswamy SES scale are the two most widely used SES scales for classifying the people by SES, of which B. G. Prasad scale is applicable for both rural as well as urban population. BG Prasad scale was first introduced in 1961 and was revised in 1968 and 1970.[1,2,3] It is calculated on the basis of per capita monthly income (per capita monthly income = total monthly family income/total family members) and is widely used in India.
The benefit of using B. G. Prasad SES scale is that it depends only on the income variable and is simple to calculate. However, income part needs to be updated from time to time as the value of rupee changes due to inflation and hence, income criteria may lose its relevance. Therefore, it is important to continuously update the income categories of the scale.
REVISION OF B. G. PRASAD SCALE
The BG Prasad scale was introduced in 1961 considering the base of Consumer Price Index (CPI) for 1960 as 100.[1] The scale was modified in 1982 and 2001 by introducing linking factors to convert CPI (1982 and 2001) from the new base of 100 to the old base CPI (1960). The linking factors for 1982 and 2001 were 4.63 and 4.93, respectively. Recently, there was an amendment in the base year by the Ministry of Labor Bureau and the base year was changed to 2016 by introducing a linking factor of 2.88.[4] The main objective of this change was to bring out the new series of All India and individual center-wise Consumer Price Indices for Industrial Workers based on the latest consumption pattern of the working class population.
CALCULATION OF THE NEW INCOME RANGES
CPI for Industrial Workers for January 2021 = 118.2.
Multiplication factor = current index value (118.2)/base index value in 2016 (100) =1.182.
The new income value can now be calculated using the following equation:
New income value = Multiplication Factor × Old Income Value × 4.63 × 4.93 × 2.88.
Where 4.63, 4.93, and 2.88 are the linking factors given by the Labor Bureau.
The updated values for the per capita monthly income (in Rs./month) for January 2021 are given in [Table 1].
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Table 1: Revision of Prasad's socioeconomic status classification revised for the year 2021 (base year 2016=100)
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Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
REFERENCES
1. Prasad BG. Social classification of Indian families J Indian Med Assoc. 1961;37:250–1
2. Prasad BG. Social classification of Indian families J Indian Med Assoc. 1968;51:365–6
3. Prosad BG. Changes proposed in the social classification of Indian families J Indian Med Assoc. 1970;55:198–9
4. Ministry of Labour and Employment. . Government of India Report on New Series of Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) (Base 2016=100). Available from:
http://labourbureau.gov.in/Report_CPI_IW_New_Series_Base_2016.pdf. [Last accessed on 2021 Mar 31]
