CHIKKATPALLY (NIZAMABAD): A group of tiny-tots of this village played the role of enumerators and the survey they conducted on "hidden costs" of households in the village is an "eye-opener" to elders who are careless about the future of children.

Some 22 children of below 15 years went round all households numbering 220 in the village, collecting details of expenditure of each household .

Findings

The findings are startling and they reveal that there is a huge gap between what the elders spend for themselves and for their wards.

Surprisingly, elders in a year spend a whopping Rs. 32.47 lakhs on toddy and liquor, gambling, beedi and cigarettes, entertainment and pilgrimage, while Rs. 7.93 lakhs on children for school fees, clothes and other necessities.

Expenditure on overheads breaks down as follows: toddy Rs. 4.77 lakhs, liquor Rs. 8.66 lakhs, card play Rs. 77,600, tobacco, beedi, cigar, gutka and pan masala Rs. 4.29 lakhs, cinema and other entertainment Rs.7.63 lakhs and clothes and other needs Rs.6.33 lakhs.

For children on school fees, pens and stationery Rs. 2.39 lakhs, clothes Rs.2.24 lakhs, entertainment Rs.1.42 lakhs and other needs Rs.1.86 lakhs.

Petty demands

"Profligacy of elders and denial of our petty demands has driven us to embark on this survey.

We finished it in a single day on November 5. As soon as this thought flashed our brains we started the work and compiled the data," says P. Mahesh, leader of the Chiru Bala Seva Sangham.

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