Food spending comes down in rural India

The share of expenditure on food in rural India is going down over a period of time while that on non-food is rising.

In 1993-94, food accounted for 65 per cent of the average rural per capita annual expenditure and by 1999-2000, it had come down to 62 per cent, said Pratyush Sinha, secretary, Union ministry of rural development, inaugurating a two-day seminar on 'Rural Development and Social Change' organised by the National Institute of Rural Development as part of its foundation day celebrations, here on Wednesday.

As far as non-food consumption goes, there has been a significant increase in the real per capita expenditure on education. In 1993-94, the average per capita spending on education in rural India was 1.5 per cent of the total expenditure and by 2001-02, it increased to 2.5 per cent, Sinha said.

Stating that rural development was not necessarily agricultural development, he said the main source of livelihood of over 33 per cent of rural households was not agriculture.