Misery Index is a popular measure in the developed world to judge the economic welfare. Although it is not the most scientific approach but it is based on the assumption that a higher rate of unemployment and a worsening of inflation both create economic and social costs for a country. Some analysts also argue that the rate of crime and the misery index correlate strongly. In this paper, we took a lead from the standard Misery Index and introduced two more indicators in constructing the Modified Misery Index for India, at sub-national or state level. These indicators can well be considered as representative of the state's level of misery. For inflation, we have considered food inflation which directly affects people of all the sections. Further, apart from the unemployment rate and food inflation, we have taken into account the poverty ratio and access to health care to construct a composite index, Modified Misery Index.
Misery Index, General welfare, food inflation, unemployment, poverty, access to health
