An Analysis on the Levels of Living in Punjab State

Level of living in Punjab State(rural) was analysed by taking a sample of 150 households from the six villages of three agro-climatic zones of Punjab. Zone I comprised of Hilly region, zone II Central region and zone III the South Western region. Data were collected on the housing, material possessions, health/medical care, clothing, food and nutrition and sanitation. The combination of all these parameters highlighted the overall level of living. The analysis of data indicated that agricultural households of zone I, scored better on education (43.75 percent) in high level and 31.25 percent in medium level. In zone II, 75 percent of households belonged to low or medium educational level. On the basis of aggregate score of level of living 40.62 percent in zone I, 62.50 percent in zone II and 81.25 percent in zone III of agricultural households had high level of living whereas majority of labour and artisans scored on medium level of living. Composite score of agricultural households of zone II was highest (19.22), followed by zone III (18.89) and score for zone I was 17.97. Aggregate score for labour households ranged between 10.09 to 12.72 in different zones. In case of artisans of zone I, aggregate score was 14.43 percent, but in zone II it was 13.71 and 15.71 for zone HI. Composite score was statistically significant among different categories only. ‘F’ values on average score on income, education, housing, assets and food was found to be significant at 5 percent level of significance among different categories. Differences were statistically significant for sanitation among different zones.