Masaan Index Access

Masaan Index " is a popular reference to the highly-acclaimed 2015 film

Here is the uncomfortable truth: How a society treats its dead is a mirror of how it treats its living.

Report: The Masaan Index – An Unofficial Metric of Economic Distress

1. Definition & Origin

The term “Masaan Index” (Hindi for Crematorium Index) is an unofficial, socio-economic metaphor coined by Indian journalists and economists following the COVID-19 pandemic. It refers to the rise in the number of dead bodies brought to crematoriums (masaan) and burial grounds as a more reliable (though grim) indicator of economic collapse and excess mortality than government-published data.

One such informal but profoundly moving metric has quietly entered the Indian socio-economic discourse: The Masaan Index.