Changes in Level of Living in Rural West Bengal-Social Consumption

In the first of a series of articles comparing the results of a resurvey in 1985-86 of villages and households in three districts of West Bengal which had been covered by the NSS in its 27th and 28th rounds, the authors had reported stagnation in food consumption of households and only a mild improvement in non-food consumption. In this article, the second in the series, the authors study social consumption and find that there has been considerable improvement in the level of social consumption, although the absolute level even after the improvement remains most dismal.