Relative deprivation theory assumes an important role to unravel the different facets of economic disparity. In an operational economy persons are engaged with different occupations and thus have different income levels. Obviously a resentment feeling among individuals will emerge from inter- personal shortages of income. These shortages are viewed as relative deprivation and it is inherent in the feeling of a person not having an income though others are having it. An attempt has been made in this paper to analytically decompose the changes in relative deprivation into growth and distribution components in the framework of additive decomposition. More precisely, the effects of changes in growth and distribution parameter (inequality) are analytically isolated. The analytical model, which has been experimented in the Indian economy, is of use in identifying the factors responsible for rising relative deprivation.

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