India - Household Consumer Expenditure: NSS 50th Round, Schedule 1, July 1993 - June 1994

Block 13.1 contains particulars of ceremonies performed and meals served by the household during the last 30 days prior to the date of survey. Ceremonies are performed to solemnize notable events of life e.g. birth, marriage etc. Members of a household may have to perform some religious rites consequent upon the death of a person. For various religious faiths, there are some days in a year which are observed with ceremonial performanc­es like offering of puja, prayer, celebration of rituals etc. Such ceremonies may be performed by household members as required under the social/religious customs without incurring any expendi­ture for entertaining guests. On the other hand, households may have to spend something under different heads for the purpose of entertainment. Conventionally these expenditures are considered as essential part of the ceremonies performed by them. The purpose of providing this block in this schedule is to estimate the no. of meals served to guests during ceremonies performed by the household in the last 30 days preceding the date of enquiry as also the meals serves to guests and employees (non-members only) on any other occasion (other than ceremonies) and also to estimate the amount of expenditure incurred by the household on these occasions under various broad groups of items e.g. food, clothing & footwear, misc. goods & services, durable goods etc.

This item is to be filled in if the household had reported to have performed one or more ceremonies. Particulars about the ceremony performed last (within the refer­ence period 30 days) are to be recorded first. Other ceremonies performed within the period are to be noted one by one in sequen­tial order of the dates of performance of the ceremonies.