Income Distribution in Rural Jammu and Kashmir, An Inter-Temporal Analysis

The primary objective of this paper is to examine time trends in levels of living (as reflected by consumption pattern) in rural Jammu and Kashmir with special reference to the post-1947 period. The choice of the reference period is primarily motivated by availability of data. The data analysis shows: (i) The differences in the monthly per-capita total consumption expenditure on food and monthly per-capita total consumption expenditure on non-food, at current and constant prices, between the top most fractile class and the lowest fractile class have narrowed down from the base year (1960-61) to the terminal year (1987-88) indicating that consumption distribution has become less skewed during the period under reference; (ii) All the indices of inequality turned out to be very low and exhibit a fair degree of stability across the NSS rounds. These indices increase marginally from the base (1960-61) to the terminal year (1987-88); and (iii) All the indices of inequality for monthly per-capita total expenditure on food turned out to be the lowest compared to the non-food distribution which implies that food distribution is less skewed compared to non-food.