Abantika Ghosh/TNN
New Delhi, Apr 19: Middle class parents may be feeling the pinch of spiralling prices, but it seems their teenaged children have never had it so good. A survey finds that the pocket money of urban Indian kids aged 10-17 years has gone up more than four times in the past 10 years, and children in Delhi lead the pack with a princely average of Rs 1,800 to spend in a month.
No wonder, even the spending pattern of children in this age group is changing fast - it now typically includes investments on DVDs, mobile phones and multiple outings.
According to the survey - "Trends of pocket money in urban areas" commissioned by industry chamber, Assocham - the average monthly allowance of urban children in this age group was Rs 300 in 1998. It has now shot up to Rs 1,300.
Kids in Bangalore are the richest after Delhi, with an average pocket money of Rs 1,600, followed by young Mumbaikars who get to blow up Rs 1,500. Children in Chennai follow close behind at Rs 1,450 per month while Kolkata kids seem to be poor cousins in comparison - they get just Rs 1,200. The survey was done through interviews with 2,500 children across the country.
The survey said, in the 12-15 age bracket, the average monthly pocket money was Rs 125 in 1998. This has risen by 550% to Rs 800 at present.
Principals say it is the "most natural thing" that Delhi with its substantial number of nuclear families and families where both parents earn, tops the chart. Says Usha Ram, principal of Laxman Public School, "I can't really give a quantitative tag to it but it is very obvious that pocket money has really gone up in the last few years."
"As a school we have had to consciously take measures to curb flaunting of wealth inside the school. Till Class V, a child cannot bring more than Rs 10 to school. After that, though we say that kids should not carry more than Rs 50, it is more difficult to enforce because there are children who come from some distance away and do not bring lunch either," said Usha Ram.
Many schools have banned on-campus birthday celebrations to maintain some kind of equality. But, off the record, principals say it's tough to rein in expenditure when parents are increasingly looking at money as a substitute for not spending time with their children.
Some 65% of the children surveyed said that they received pocket money, with children aged between 15-17 years receiving an average of Rs 350 per week and those between 12-15 years getting about Rs 200 per week. In an interesting finding, the survey shows that girls aged between 15 and 17 years receive more pocket money than boys even though the trend is reversed for younger children. "This may be because girls are supposed to be bigger spenders with their penchant for shopping, and more importantly, parents often trust daughters more," said an Assocham official.
The amount spent on various items varies according to gender - girls spend the most money on clothes, cosmetics and toiletries while boys spend most on computer games etc.
The allocation of pocket money was found to differ with age and gender with children aged between 15 and 17 years being more likely to receive it than those aged between 10 and 14 years.
In fact the amount is enough for children to save up for quite "grown-up" things, the survey showed, including vacations.
A lot of times, pocket money is linked to academic performance. Of all the children interviewed, 24% said their pocket money increased once a year while 6% said it was revised more than four times a year. For 26%, the timing of the increase varied while 22% said their pocket money never went up. Birthdays are the most common occasion for parents to revise the amount of pocket money they give, with the annual increase at times being as high as 33%.