 |
STANDARD OF LIVING
|
 |
MISCELLANEOUS GROUP.
This group being composed of teachers, traders, and shop-keepers, medical practitioners, etc. enjoys an influential social status by virtue of the economic prosperity of its constituents. In spite of the fact that they are grouped together, there are differences between one and the other. The distinguishing characteristics can apparently be seen in the level of their income. The medical practitioners and traders, for example, are economically better off than teachers or shopkeepers.
Income pattern.
This class of professionals can, however, be distinguished from other classes in certain respects, viz.; (i) as revealed by the investin gations many of the families have no fixed income, their incomes vary from month to month or year to year; (ii) some are engaged in social and philanthropic work.
Income.
A family from this group usually consisted of five to six members
of whom more than three were adults. Generally the head of the family was its mainstay, while others used to help him. The average yearly income per family was found to be Rs. 1,486.9. Some of the traders, medical practitioners and teachers possessed land. To that extent they were economically better off than the cultivators.
Expenditure.
The expenditure side of their family budgets revealed that considerable part of the income was spent on food-stuffs and clothing. It being an advanced class in the rural society, the constituents of their food are generally nutritious and costly, their consumption of milk, tea, sugar, oil, spices, fruits and vegetables is also higher than in any other class of persons in the rural society except the big landowners. Considerable variations were seen in the expenditure on clothing.
In one schedule, for instance, the annual
expenditure on clothing was Rs. 500, while in another it was Rs. 275 only.
Education.
Persons from this group were round to spend considerably on
education, entertainment and donations to social work.
In this group, cases of indebtedness were very few. The families which were indebted reported to have borrowed mainly for providing capital to their respective occupations.
Housing.
The conditions of housing were far better in this group than those
of others except the big landowners. Some households had even radio sets.
|
