87 pc Indian households feel the heat as veggie prices soar: Survey

New Delhi: About nine out of every 10 households in India are "feeling the pinch" of rising prices of vegetables in the last 30 days, according to a survey. LocalCircles, which conducted the survey, said it received 11,800 responses from citizens residing in 311 districts across India and claimed that around 87 per cent of Indian households are ''affected'' by the rising prices of vegetables since March.

Of these, 37 per cent of the respondents said they were experiencing an increased spending of over 25 per cent on vegetables. LocalCircles said findings of the survey indicate that prices of some vegetables skyrocketed in the last month.

Thirty six per cent of the respondents said they were paying "10-25 per cent more", while another 14 per cent said they were paying "0-10 per cent more" for the same quantity of vegetables now compared to last month.

As many as 25 per cent of the people said they had to shell out "25-50 per cent more" while another five per cent people believed they had to burn an additional "50-100 per cent" for the same quantity of vegetables as compared to March. Seven per cent of those surveyed claimed they were paying more than double the amount for the same quantity. Only 2 per cent of the repondents said they were "actually paying less overall" and four per cent were of the opinion that the prices remained unchanged.

Seven per cent of the people said they were unable to differentiate between the prices then and now. The survey was conducted via the LocalCircles platform and only Indian citizens were registered after validating their documents, the surveyor said.

Around 64 per cent respondents were men while 36 per cent respondents were women. Forty eight per cent of them were from tier 1 cities and 29 percent from tier 2 cities. The remaining 23 per cent respondents belonged to tier 3 and tier 4 cities, and rural districts.