PATTERN OF CONSUMPTION AND COST OF

LIVING IN AGRICULTURAL LABOUR

SAMPLE HOUSEHOLDS

1. Introduction

2. Household Consumption

3. Household Equipment

4. Household Expenditure

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 Chapter - 8
Pattern of Consumption and Cost of living in
Agricultural labour sample households.

It is income which enables a person to purchase goods and

commodities necessary to maintain a given standard of living.
Income determines the purchasing capacity of Agricultural Labour
family and the purchasing capacity determines the standard of living

of the agricultural labour family. In this chapter data on the pattern

of consumption in sample households are analysed to show the

standard of living .

As observed during investigation the consumption habit of

agricultural labour households is irregular and very erratic. There

is no standard consumption habit and uniform practice of family

expenditure. The consumption habit varies from family to family

and from time to time in a particular family.

Meaning of Standard of living -

The standard of living refers to the amount of necessaries,

comforts and luxuries, which a person consumes. Thus the articles

of necessaries, comforts, and luxuries to which a man becomes
habituated , constitute his standard of living. The standard of living
as a matter of fact is more or less a matter of habit and as habit

can not change soon, it take some time to change one’s standard
of living.
Family Budget Enquiry -

The expenditure in a family could be generally met out of

current receipts from wages or income and from borrowings. The
term expenditure of the household includes all items of expenditure
on which the expenditure can be recorded in a family.

The items of family expenditure in respect of which

information has been collected are: (1) food (2) fuel and lighting
(3) clothing (4) house (5) tabacco (6) household requisites
(7) conveyance (8) social ceremonies or function (9) education and
medical (10) expenditure in acquiring assets (11) interest on loans
(12) debt repayments or lending (13) taxes (14) recreation
(15) litigation (16) professional expenses (17) miscellaneous items.

Expenditure on each of the above items has been recorded

under minor sub-items and total of all such items of consumption
has been treated as expenditure on the main item. Thus it could
be seen that all expenditure, both of consumption and capital
nature, has been taken into account .The agricultural labourers
also get perquisites in addition to wages. The value of kind
payments and perquisites has been evaluated in cash and has
been taken into account while computing income as well as the
expenditure of the agricultural labour households.

Place of Marketing -

Generally the agricultural labour family depends on the

village shopkeeper for marketing of article for daily consumption.
If the village in which they live has no shop the labourers have to
go to the nearby village to purchase goods for daily consumption.

Sometimes the labourers may purchase commodities from the

nearby daily market or/ and from nearby weekly market. The
agricultural labour family purchase goods for consumption daily.
As they receive the wage in the evening after the completion of
work, they purchase various articles in the evening for the next

day. Barring some few article which they purchase in bulk, all other

necessary articles they purchase almost daily. Rice is a major

item of consumption of agricultural labour family. Almost all

agricultural labour families take rice as the main item of
consumption. The family members also take roti when there is
non availability of rice. They even purchase rice daily for

consumption for the next day. Rice is plentily available at a cheap

«•

rate in the month of Dec, Jan and Feb. But the agricultural labourers

cannot purchase it due to shortage of funds to preserve for the

rainy season. So some times in rainy season they face a lot of

inconvinence due to non-availability of rice in the village. Even if

they have money they are unable to purchase rice, so they have to

go to bed in hunger. The process of marketing necessitate a lot of

time.

The consumption pattern is an important aspect of the socio­

economic condition of agricultural labourer. Consumption

expenditures may be subject to variations, in response to changes
in income. Though there are two types of factors influencing the
consumption habit, subjective and objective, the most important

factor affecting consumption habit is income. The level of income

of sample agricultural labour families is inadequate to allowthem

to have a standard and regular consumption habit. During the time

of enquiry some important features have been marked in the

consumption habit of the agricultural labour which is discussed

below.

Firstly, the consumption standard of agricultural labour family

is very low. It is mainly due to low level of income. The income is

insufficient to allow the agricultural labour family to have a high
standard consumption habit. They consume few limited commodities
with low quality goods, just to manage the family and to maintain

the life. Thus commodities constituting bare necessaries are used

by the family.

The second important feature of consumption pattern of

agricultural labour families is that food is the major consumption item

and constitutes the major portion of their total expenditure. Generally

they give priority to food articles and after purchasing food articles if

there is surplus they purchase other articles. Ordinarily all the members
of agricultural labour family take three meals a day. In all the meals

they take rice as the primary item. They take roti when there is

non-availability of rice. Of the three meals two meals contain wet rice

with some minimum amount of curry. In some cases they take wet rice
without curry and with two or three pieces of onion or garlic or dry
fish. Thr rural agricultural labour families are habituated of taking wet
rice primarily due to two reasons , one is the belief that less amount

of rice may be sufficient for a man in wet condition and second it will

save fuel for cooking.

 Another important feature is that, there is no fixed expenditure

pattern in agricultural labour families. It is made on the basis of

necessity. When the family consider it essential and necessary for

existance it spends. Since there is no constancy in receiving income

they do not have a systematic expenditure pattern.

To procure fuel they did not have to spend much in the past,
but now they have to spent a lot due to non-availability of wood.

Similarly now a days the agricultural labour families are forced to

spend on medicines and medical care due to some unexpected

disease. But expenditure on education is very insignificant. This is

due to two reasons;- (a) insufficient income and (b) lack of
awareness among the agricultural labourer.

Another important feature in expenditure pattern of

agricultural labour family is that, they purchases commodity in small

amount from the village shop-keeper. They prefer to have daily

marketing because they receive income daily. As they purchase

small amount, the village shop-keeper charges exorbitant price
for the commodity. The quality of the goods is also inferior.

Sometimes the worker purchases commodity on credit for which

they have to completely depend on the mercy of the shop-keeper.

In Orissa a number of festivals are observed by the people.

In almost every month of a calender year one can mark the
observation of an important festival. The festivals which are

observed gorgeously in sample villages are Raja parba,

Prathamastami, Dussehera, and Laxmi puja. People in sample

villages spend irrationally during the festivals. People wear new

dresses, prepare various types of cakes and observe nice food,

like fish and meat. This affects the agricultural labourers because

they are the poorest section in the village. They have limited income

and they are hard hit when they spend extravagantly. Sometimes
the families are forced to observe the festivals with limited income.

They purchase goods and commodities necessary for the occasion

and new dresses on credit. Such credit becomes heavily

burdensome.

Household consumption - The items of consumption of the

sample agricultural labour households can be classified into two

categories. Food items and non food items. Food items are required

for health and efficiency of the workers. But non food items are
required for a decent life. The workers spend major portion of their
income on food items .

Food Items - The main food items of worker are rice, flour, pulses,
dry rice, milk and milk product, oil and ghee, green vegetables,
fish, meat, egg, fruits, sugar, spieces, salt, tea, patato, onion and
garlic. Some food items of consumption are arranged by the worker
himself or by the housewife. Others are purchased from the village

shop or from the nearby market for consumption. The agricultural

labour family produce green vegetables in their orchard for

consumption. The agricultural labour family purchase fish, meat

and egg. Many of the families rear hens to get egg and meat.The
scheduled caste workers and their family members catch snail

which is a favourite consumption item for them. Dry fish is an

important item of food for all the agricultural labour families and
considered as a substitute for curry. Similarly wet rice is used

frequently by the worker's family. Wet rice and dry fish is a familiar

and favourite food for rural agricultural worker’s family. The families
who have cow are able to consume milk and milk product, otherwise
they fail to consume those items.

Non food items - The non food items include tobacco and

intoxicants, clothing and footwear, fuel and lighting, household

equipments, transport and communication, cosmetic and medicines

and other miscellaneous articles. The worker does not spend daily
on non food items.

(a)Tobacco and Intoxicants - The items of this category are

betel, tobacco, biri, surti intoxicants, tobacco 3eaf, and ganja. These
items are very much essential for the worker. These items are
considered as conventional efficiency of life. In morning and evening

and after taking meals the ,worker needs any item of these
intoxicants. During the working hour the worker gets it from the
cultivator as perquisite but for morning and evening he has to
purchase it for consumption.

Cloth - Cloth is an important non food item of consumption for the

agricultural labour family in sample village. Cloth is a bare

necessary of life. This item needs occasional expenditure but it

requires a big amount for which the agricultural labourer faces
problem. The items in cloth category are dhoti, lungi, banyan, kurta,

shirt, and dresses for children like shirt and pant, woollen items.

Fuel and Lighting Fuel and Lighting is another important item

-
of expenditure of the sample agricultural labour family. The main

items in this category are wood, kerosin, and electricity. In the past
agricultural labour families got free wood, because there were
forests near the village. But now a days the situation has changed.
There is shrinking of forest area and it is due to illegal cut of
trees. Now the worker’s family have to spent a lot of time to arrange

fuel. Mainly the housewife, female members of the family and

children are engaged to collect wood for fuel. Kerosin is the main

item of lighting but some agricultural labour family also use

electricity for the purpose of lighting.

Household equipment - Household equipments include kitchen

utensils used for the purpose of cooking , domestic articles used

in the house and equipment necessary for field work. During

investigation the following household articles were found under the
possession of or used by most of the agricultural labour households.
A list of the household articles are given below:-

Household Articles -

1- Degchee 8- Small metal cup

2- Cauldron 9- Small plate

3- Stick ladle 10- Mettalic dish

4- Perforated ladle 11- Jar

5- Ladle 12- Pitcher

6- Spoon 13- Brass bowl

7- Lock & Key 14- Winnowing Fan

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15- Fry pan 35- Trunk

i6- plate 36- Bowl

17- Mortar 37- Lantern

18- Lamp 38- Churning stick

19- Coconut scrapper 39- Almirah

20- Kitchen Knife 40- Wooden chest

21- Comb 41-Pipe stack

22- Mirror 42- Balance

23- Bucket 43- Cot

24- Utensils 44- Chair

25- Board 45 - Rug

26- Rolling pin 46- Earthen ware

27- Rushmat 47- Trap

28- Torch

29- Curry stone

30- Scissors

31- Cabinet ware

32- Broom

33- Umbrella

34- Box
 Besides the above household articles some other household
equipments were found under the possession of agricultural labour
household and used in field work . The equipments are as follows.

Agricultural Equipments -

1- Sickle

2- Chopper

3- Plough

4- Crowbar

5- Ropeshelf

6- Hatchet

7- Axe

8- Spade

9- Native spade

These equipments are highly essential for domestic and field

work . Purpose. The agricultural labour household has to incur
expenditure inorder to purchase the above articles .

Household Expenditure -

The expenditure of agricultural labour sample households is

given in the following table.
 (HD

Table No- 8.1

Classification of families by the amount of Household
Expenditure per annum

Expenditure in Rs. No of Households % to total

10,000....... ....... 11,000 Nil

11,000....... ....... 12,000 2 0.67

12,000....... ....... 13,000 7 2.34

13,000....... ....... 14,000 16 5.34

14,000....... ....... 15,000 23 7.67

15,000....... .........16,000 34 11.34

16,000....... .........17,000 53 17.67

17,000....... .........18,000 61 20.34

18,000....... .........19,000 35 11.67

19,000....... .........20,000 44 14.67

20,000....... .........21,000 18 6.00

21,000.................22,000 7 2.34

Total e»
300 100.00

The above table reveals that the lowest expenditure class is

Rs.10,000/- to Rs.11,000/- where the number of sample household
nil. The highest expenditure class is Rs.21,000/- to Rs.22,000/-
where the number of sample household 7 . The class having the
 <s>

highest number of household is Rs. 17,000/- to Rs.18,000/-, 61

households come under this class of expenditure . 53 households
have an expenditure between Rs.16,000/- to Rs.17,000/-. The

average expenditure per agricultural labour household per annum

comes to Rs.17,180 /- .The average total percapita expenditure in

the household comes to Rs. 3,492 /-

The classification of families by size of expenditure is

presented in a graph as below .

Graph No.-8.a
Yearly expenditure distribution of agricultural labour Households.
70-

60-
Number of Households

Expenditure in Rupees
 up to 12000

12000-13000

13000-14000

14000-15000

m 15000-16000
a
16000-17000

17000-18000

18000-19000

19000-20000

20000-21000
wzrw-%
**** 21000-22000

The enquiry reveals that 3 percent of households have

consumption expenditure wihthin Rs.10,000/- to Rs.13,000/-.
24. 34 percent of household have consumption expenditure within
Rs.13,000/- to Rs.16,000/-. 49.67 percent of sample household
have consumption expenditure within Rs.16,000/- to Rs. 19,000/-.
Similarly 23 percent of sample household have a consumption
expenditure within Rs. 19,000/- to Rs. 22,000/-.
 Table - 8.2
Consumption pattern in sample Agricultural Households

SI.No. Item Proportion of total private final

consumption Expenditure at
2000-01 prices.

1. Food 63.6

2. Tobacco & Intoxicants 3.00

3. Clothing & Footwear 10.01

4. Fuel & Power 3.00

5. Furniture & Household Equipment 4.4

6. Transport & Communication 6.7

7. Miscellaneous 9.00

Total 100.00

The table-8.2 gives the consumption pattern of an average

household in sample villages. It differs from that of an average

household in other parts of the district. It also differs from one family
to another.

The average expenditure per agricultural labour household

per annum comes to Rs.17,180/-. The average per capita

expenditure in the household comes to Rs.3,491.87

 63.6 percent of the total expenditure is incurred on items of

food alone . The next item of expenditure is clothing claiming 10.01

percent of the total expenditure. 3.00 percent of total expenditure
spent on Tobacco and intoxicants , the same 3.00 percent on fuel
and power, 4.4 percent on Furniture and household equipment,

6.7 percent on transport and communication and 9.00 percent is

spent on miscellaneous expenditure.