Chandigarh:
Rising living costs have led to school- and college-going teens in metropolitan cities getting as much as Rs.3,600 to over Rs.12,000 a month in pocket money, says an Assocham survey.
"Teenagers who used to get Rs.450-Rs.500 per month till 2005 are today getting minimum of Rs.3,600 per month to an astonishing Rs.12,000 and above across urban India," said DS Rawat, National Secretary General, Assocham.
Industry body Assocham conducted a random survey on "Current Pocket Money Trends in Urban India" over 3,000 children in the 12-20 years age group in New Delhi, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Chennai and Kolkata over last six years. They interviewed 600 teens in each of the 5 metro cities.
The survey found that teenagers spent a major chunk (35 per cent) of their monthly allowance on buying digi-cams, Ipods, game consoles, cell phones and other expensive miscellaneous electronic gadgets.
This was followed by expenditure on apparels and physical appearance (30 per cent) followed by visits to multiplexes and shopping malls (20 per cent).
Earlier, there used to be no concept of giving pocket money, and kids used to look up to their parents for all their necessities. Moreover, those who got the pocket money would receive a meagre amount.
"But with rapidly changing lifestyle coupled with growing costs, we cannot expect teenagers to manage with figures of the old times," Rawat said.