Levels and pattern of consumption expenditure of non-farm households in rural Punjab

The present paper deals with consumption pattern of 440 rural non-farm households, sampled from 44 villages of all 22 districts of Punjab. A household member, on an average, spends around a half of the monthly consumption expenditure on food items and slightly less than half of the percent of its total consumption expenditure per month on non-food items. Among the food items, more than two-fifth of the total expenditure was spent on milk and milk products. Among the non-food items, around one-fourth of the expenditure was on education which was a good sign for human development. However, it was observed that the total consumption expenditure was unevenly distributed among the various groups. The bottom ten per cent household members has only less than one-twentieth share of total per capita consumption expenditure. The upper most ten per cent household members share less than one-fourth of the total per capita consumption expenditure, which shows inequality prevailing among the rural non-farm categories. The absolute level of per capita expenditure on all items of consumption was fairly higher for the service category households as compared with those of self-employment category households.