Nature of Income and Expenditure of Rural and Urban Households: A Micro Level Study in Bankura District Of West Bengal

The studies on food and non-food consumption pattern or expenditure pattern are very important as it is related to poverty and standard of our society. Food being the foremost basic need gets the priority in the expenditure of people, especially the poor classes. It is necessary to study the change in food consumption pattern under the changing situation of liberalization, privatization and globalization. In study area there are two types of consumption expenditure. One food consumption expenditure and the other non-food Consumption expenditure. The Food and non-food consumption depends on different factors like Income, Price Level, Age, Sex, rate of interest, Education, time, Credit Condition, Health, Wealth, etc. It is observed that food and non- food consumption expenditure in rural and urban area of West Bengal is varies. In this paper I compare Income and expenditure of rural households and urban households in Bankura district of West Bengal. The pattern of food and non-food consumption expenditure of rural and urban households is examined here. Food and non-food consumption expenditure of urban person is higher than that of the rural person. Side by side, the savings of rural persons is lower than that of urban persons. The rural Class spent (63%) more of their income on food consumption, their income being very low. Rural savings level is less than urban savings. On the other hand the urban class saves above 38% of total income.