Village India catching up on healthy food habits

Health consciousness is catching up with rural households. A National Sample Survey Organisation...

Health consciousness is catching up with rural households. A National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey on consumer expenditure for fiscal 2005-06, which was released today, has found that an average rural family spent 53 paise of every rupee on buying healthy food products like milk & milk products, eggs, meat, fish and vegetables, while its urban counterpart spent 60 paise of every rupee on non-food items such as fuel and lighting (9 paise), clothing and footwear (6 paise), and the maximum of 14 paise on consumer services.

Rural per capita consumption of eggs saw an increase of nearly 60 per cent between 1993-94 and 2004-05. The percentage of rural households consuming eggs in a month rose from 22 to 33 per cent during the period. In urban areas, per capita consumption increase during the review period was just about 16 per cent.

However, the monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) of an average urban family on cereals, milk & milk products, eggs, meat and fish was at least 58 per cent more than what a rural family spent in 2005-06. To meet the expenses of city life, the average urban family spent five times more (Rs 703) on non-food items than its rural counterpart, which spent just Rs 291 on education, entertainment, fuel & lighting, and clothing & footwear.

The average urban Indian spent just 9 paise of every rupee on cereals while the rural citizen spent 17 paise. The survey found that the urban Indian spent a smaller portion of the rupee than the rural Indian on every food group except beverages, refreshments and processed food.

Rural and urban India exhibited variations in expenditure on food at the state level. For rural India, state-level food expenditure per person varied between Rs 251 and Rs 400, in which 13 of the 17 major states were fairly evenly spread out. It was the lowest in Chhattisgarh (Rs 236), followed by Madhya Pradesh (Rs 250) and Orissa (Rs 260). The national average was Rs 333.

The share of food in total expenditure varied from 44 per cent for high MPCE states like Punjab and Kerala to 60 per cent in Assam and 61 per cent each in Bihar and Jharkhand.