Measuring Social Capital in Rural Punjab

Abstract

Social capital is the rules, norms, obligations, reciprocity and trust embedded in social relations, social structures and society's institutional arrangements which enable its members to achieve their individual and community objectives. The main aim of this article is to measure social capital at the household level in rural areas of three districts of the state of Punjab in India. Mean score on the social capital index is found to be 59.90 points out of possible 100 points and standard deviation is 22.70. It is also observed that as the level of education and the level of income rises, the score on social capital index rises at the significant level.