The important findings of the survey conducted at Chennai centre are given below:

1. The total number of working class families covered during the survey was 648.
2. The estimated total number of working class families as defined for the purpose of the survey was about 3.17 lakhs.
3. The estimated total number of employees in these families was about 5.24 lakhs.
4. The average monthly income per employee from paid employment worked out to Rs. 3497.00.
5. Manufacturer of wearing apparel, except fur apparel industry dominated in terms of employment.
6. About 87 per cent of the total employees were employed on a regular basis, 12 per cent were on casual basis and the remaining 1 per cent on contractual basis.
7. The average size of a working class family worked out to be 4.39 persons. Of which, 1.34 were earners, 0.50 earning dependants and 2.55 non-earning dependants consisting of 1.62 men, 1.77 women and 1.00 children.
8. The modal family size was with four and five members.
9. The estimated total number of family members was 13.91 lakhs. Out of which, 48.68 per cent were males. Of the total family members, 43.48 per cent were married, 7.89 per cent were widowed, divorced or separated and the remaining 48.63 per cent were un-married.
10. The dependency ratio was 368/1000.
11. Around 7 percent of the family members (5 years of age and above) were illiterate and more than 5 per cent were graduate and above.
12. Around 40 per cent of the family members (5 years of age and above) were employees and about 53 per cent were not in labour force.
13. Of all the families, 73.64 per cent of the families had one earner, 20.60 per cent had two earners while the remaining 5.76 per cent had three or more earners.
14. The average monthly income per family worked out to be Rs. 6615.94 and the per capita income as Rs. 1506.99.
15. As much as 87.38 per cent of the total average monthly income came from paid employment.
16. Within the paid employment, basic wages and allowances contributed more than 86 per cent of the total income.
17. The average expenditure per family worked out to be Rs. 5409.58. Out of which, Rs. 4603.37 was on consumption expenditure and Rs. 806.21 was on non-consumption expenditure.
18. Within consumption expenditure, the share of food items was 44.15 per cent.
19. Around 87 per cent of the families had spent less than 45 percent of their total expenditure on food.
20. About 99 per cent of the families reported expenditure on savings and investments.
21. There was a significant decline in the percentage of families reporting expenditure on Pan, Supari, Tobacco & Tobacco products and Alcoholic Beverages as compared to 1981-82 survey.
22. The percentage of families reporting expenditure on medical care, personal care and transport & communication during 1999-2000 increased substantially as compared to 1981-82 survey.
23. The average monthly quantity of Cereals and Cereal Products consumed per family worked out to be 41.60 Kgs, of which major share was accounted for by wheat (1.88 Kgs) and rice (37.78 Kgs). The per capita consumption of Cereals and Cereal Products was 9.48 Kgs.
24. The average monthly consumption of milk per family has almost doubled to 20.13 litres from 10.94 litres in 1981-82 survey.
25. About 75 per cent of families recorded an average surplus income of Rs. 1206.36 over per family expenditure.
26. The incidence of indebtedness worked out to be 64.28 per cent during 1999-2000 as compared to 89.46 per cent in 1981-82 survey.
27. Maximum proportion of families (i.e. 34.85 per cent) was in the loan amount class of Rs. 20,000 to less than Rs. 50,000.
28. The average amount of outstanding debt per indebted family worked out to be Rs. 19,810.56.
29. Money lender was the main source of loans.
30. The interest rates charged by the money lender were the harshest with the highest outstanding amount of Rs. 5304.88 concentrated in above 30 percent interest rate class.
31. About 49 per cent of the families were residing in Flats; around 44 per cent were using independent houses as their residence and 2.39 per cent had Chawl bustee.
32. Of all the families, 90.47 per cent had made their own arrangements for accommodation, 6.75 per cent were provided dwellings by the employers and the remaining 2.78 per cent were residing in the dwellings provided by friends and relatives etc.
33. The percentage of families enjoying basic amenities like kitchen, bathroom, latrine and electricity was 88.89 per cent, 94.84 per cent, 93.66 per cent and 98.41 per cent respectively.

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 NOTE :     Detailed  report is available with Controller of Publications, Civil Line, New Delhi.