  Social inequality is a topic of interest since ages, and has attracted
researchers across disciplines to ponder over it origin, manifestation,
characteristics, consequences, and finally, the question of how to cope with
it. It is manifested across different strata of human existence, and is
quantified in several ways. In this review we discuss the origins of social
inequality, the historical and commonly used non-entropic measures such as
Lorenz curve, Gini index and the recently introduced $k$ index. We also discuss
some analytical tools that aid in understanding and characterizing them.
Finally, we argue how statistical physics modeling helps in reproducing the
results and interpreting them.
