India's rural population still lives on less than Rs 18 a day, with the bottom five per cent barely managing to spend Rs 8 per person per day, says an official report.
NEW DELHI: India's rural population still lives on less than Rs 18 a day, with the bottom five per cent barely managing to spend Rs 8 per person per day, says an official report.
"In 2004-05, five per cent of the Indian rural population belonged to households with monthly per capita consumer expenditure in the range Rs 0 to Rs 235 - that is, spending less than Rs 8 per person per day on consumption," says the report.
"Another five percent of the Indian rural population belonged to households with monthly per capita expenditure in the range Rs 235 to Rs 270 - that is, spending Rs 8 to Rs 9 per person per day," says the report based on the National Sample Survey.
The report measures the level and pattern of consumer expenditure in the country in 2004-05, based on the 7th survey on household consumer expenditure carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).
The survey shows that in urban India, while the living condition of the poor was no different, the average level of consumption expenditure was close to double that in rural areas at Rs 35 per day.
"The poorest five percent of the urban population belonged to households with monthly consumer expenditure per person in the range Rs 0 to Rs 335 - that is, spending less than Rs 11 per person per day on consumption," it says.
"Another five percent of the Indian urban population belonged to households with monthly per capita expenditure in the range Rs 335 to Rs 395 - that is, spending about Rs 11 to Rs 13 per person per day on consumption," it adds.
At the same time, about five percent of the urban population also had a monthly per capita expenditure of Rs 2,540 or more while it was between Rs 1,880 and Rs 2,540 for another five per cent.
The report also says that in rural India, 55 percent of the money is spent on food, 10 per cent on fuel and lighting, seven percent on medicine, three percent on education and four per cent on education.
In comparison, 43 per cent of the expenditure in urban India is on food, 10 per cent on fuel and lighting, five per cent on medicine, five per cent on education and seven per cent on education.
"Between 1972-73 and 2004-05, the share of food in total consumer expenditure has fallen from 73 per cent to 55 per cent in rural areas and from 64 per cent to 42 per cent in urban areas."
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