• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

NSSO survey finds sharp rise in rural household spending

New Delhi May 3 Signs of improving lifestyle patterns are becoming visible in rural India, with the per capita expenditure registering phenomenal growth rate compared with urban areas.

According to the 61st National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report (July 2004-June 2005) the most spectacular increase in that year over 1999-2000 was the expenditure on telephone calls per person, which has soared six times (515 per cent) in rural India and to 3.3 times (230 per cent) in urban India. The proportion of rural households incurring expenditure on telephones has jumped from 5 per cent to 32 per cent, while there has been an improvement from 25 per cent to 63 per cent in the urban areas.

Expenditure on tuition and other educational fees has seen the next highest rise at near three times (188.3 per cent) over its 1999-2000 level and in urban areas reached two-and-half times its earlier level. Rural petrol expenditure has doubled (100.4 per cent), while taxi and autorickshaw expenditure has more than doubled (119.2 per cent) in rural areas and risen by around 78 per cent in urban areas during this period.

The dependence on private tutors and coaching centres has also seen a dramatic rise. While in the rural areas, per capita expenditure in 2004-05 over 1999-2000 has gone up 73 per cent, the urban areas have seen 82 per cent rise under this expenditure head.

Reflecting the boom in readymade clothing sales, the report finds that tailoring expenses per person have seen a dramatic fall in both rural as well as urban India. The fall in rural areas has been around 26 per cent and 33 per cent in urban areas; the number of households per 1,000 incurring tailoring costs during a 30-day period in both areas shrunk by about one-third since 1999-2000.

The fall, however, has seen that the per capita expenditure on readymade garments rise by 63 per cent in both rural and urban areas. Per capita expenditure on beauty products (like powder, snow etc) in rural India have also seen a rise by around 43.1 per cent.

The number of households owning cars, motorcycles and television sets has been increasing significantly in recent years. Giving an 11-year data span, the report shows that the number of rural households possessing cars or jeeps has grown four times between 1993-94 and 2004-05. The number of people owning motorcycles or scooters recorded a three-fold jump during the 11-year period.

In urban areas, households possessing cars or jeeps have gone up from 1.2 per cent in 1993-94 to 4.6 per cent in 2004-05. Similarly, motorcycle or scooter owners' have increased from 11.6 per cent to 26.0 per cent.

The number of households possessing radio in urban areas has declined from 41.8 per cent in 1993-94 to 33.6 per cent in 2004-05. But the number of radio sets in rural India was marginally down from 26.8 per cent to 26.3 per cent during the same period.

On the contrary, the number of households owning TV sets has increased from 40.5 per cent to 66.1 per cent, registering a growth of 26 percentage points during the 11-year period. While in rural areas, the number has increased by over 19 percentage points from 7 per cent in 1993-94 to 25.6 per cent in 2004-05.

Refrigerators too have made inroads into rural households, with about 4.4 per cent households possessing a fridge in 2004-05 as against 0.9 per cent in 1993-94. In urban areas, three out of every ten households owned a refrigerator in 2004-05, with the percentage of families increasing from 12.3 per cent in 1993-94 to 31.9 per cent.

More Stories on : Marketing Research | Lifestyle | Telecommunications | Rural Development

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Radio Today's new FM station to talk, not sing

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line