For kids, recession is child's play!

Children in India received Rs 664-cr pocket money this year. The economic slowdown hasn't dented this market, courtesy indulgent parents. Indian children received Rs 664 crore pocket and gift money so far in 2009, up 39 per cent compared to the whole of 2008.

According to Cartoon Network's kids' lifestyle research, children in Ludhiana were the richest and got the highest pocket money, averaging Rs 419. Their counterparts in Delhi came a poor second at Rs 295.

Although the average Indian household has been impacted by the slowdown, parents have cut back on everything  -- movies, eating out, holiday outings, etc  -- but not splurging money on their children.  Children across 14 cities received an average monthly pocket money of Rs 258  -- a sharp increase from Rs 193 last year and Rs 154 in 2006.

The survey, titled New Generations 2009, covered children aged 7 to 14 years with one of the parents in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Nashik, Indore, Kochi, and Madurai. Commissioned to TNS India, the survey interviewed 3,431 children belonging to mid- to high-income families in July-August this year.

Nearly 40 per cent parents with 7 to 14 year-old children gave pocket money to their young, up from 36 per cent in 2008 and 32 per cent in 2006.

Noticeably, more than 60 per cent of the children said they have saved some part of the money received, with nearly half of them choosing to save in their piggy banks; 31 per cent trusted their parents to safe keep their allowances while 10 per cent chose to deposit in a savings account.

Duncan Morris, vice president (research and market development) at Turner International Asia Pacific, said "It was surprising to see a rise in pocket money, but we found that parents were willing to cut back on family expenditures like holidays rather than take money away from their children."

Spending on toys, games and clothes for the child too remained unaffected with 47 per cent parents willing to spend the same as they did last year, and nearly 20 per cent claimed that they would spend more on their children this year. In fact, the parents are eager to splurge on laptops and gaming systems for their teenage children.

The research also noted that 93 per cent of the Indian homes had a mobile phone, placing them ahead of Japanese households with 89 per cent having a mobile phone. Of these, 63 per cent kids (7 to 14 years of age) used the mobile phone at least once a week. Even as mobile phones become pervasive, TV remains as the most preferred medium, with 92 per cent of children watching daily.

Predictably, the virtual world has an important role to play for the younger generation. Mumbai children topped the list of being internet savvy, with 22 per cent owning internet connections on their PCs, but Delhi scored higher in terms of the number of computers. The survey also estimates that 49 per cent of the children have used a computer in the past one month and more than half of the children who surf the internet played online games besides spending time on social networking sites.