The Concept of an Unequal Society

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Social inequality and health Social inequality means the situation in which individual groups in a society do not have equal social status, social class, and social circle. Inequality is when there are clear boundaries in society that prevent publics from reaching equal status regardless of their work and effort towards reaching such objectives. They are differentially positioned with regard to access to a diversity of social ‘goods’. By sociologists, social stratification is used to describe these hierarchies and inequalities in society where some groups have higher status than others. In India the Hindu caste system classifies five clearly outlined social strata credited at birth. These five social strata are: v Brahmin-the highest caste, the priestly caste v Kshatriyas-the military, ruler and administrators v Vaisya-merchants and farmers v Sudras-manual workers v The untouchables and social outcasts-the people who have practically no status and who have no caste at all. Social class is a type of stratification that explains the social hierarchies in most modern industrialised societies. It is established on the economic factors related with income and other types of wealth. In 1921, the Registrar General made a table of different social class to compare the levels of health and ill health, life expectancy, life events and lifestyle choices by social status or class. The social classes were: v Class 1-Professional v Class 2-Managerial and technical occupations v Class 3-Skilled occupations, Non-manual(3N), Manual (3N) v Class 4-Semi-skilled occupations v Class 5-Unskilled occupation This table was used from1921 to 2001. Then in 2001, the social class table was changed in connection with employment changes and has categories to take account of the vast majority of the adult populations.

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