M.S. Dhoni: Top draw

Shah Rukh Khan is top of the pops among kids in Calcutta, but his biggest fans are almost at the bottom of the ladder in terms of pocket money, a nationwide study has revealed.

The New Generations survey, commissioned by the channel Cartoon Network, was meant to find out who children adore, what kind of lifestyle they lead and what they aspire to be.

The city-wise break-up shows that King Khan’s popularity among children in the city is six per cent more than Hrithik Roshan’s, with whom he is overall tied at 22 per cent. “He is just so cute. I like his dimple and his smile,” said five-year-old Rumki Banerjee, who has watched Chak De! India three times.

Sourav Ganguly has dropped out of the list of sports icons for kids across the country, but is second only to M.S. Dhoni in his home city. Dhoni rules young minds elsewhere, too. Sachin Tendulkar, second in the national stakes, falls behind Ganguly in Calcutta.

The survey tapped 3,020 children in the age group 7-14 and an equal number of parents across 14 cities. The sample size in Calcutta was 15 per cent of the number of children and parents surveyed.

While King Khan’s popularity was not surprising, nobody could have guessed that children in Calcutta are paid less pocket money than in any of the other cities except Guwahati. A mere 16 per cent of the respondents in the city receive pocket money, as against 36 per cent across the country.

Their counterparts in the east, Guwahati, are worse off: only 6 per cent receive any pocket money, with the average national payout being Rs 193 a month.

“The amount is rising. When we did the survey in 2006, the average was Rs 154. This excludes lunch or travel money,” the vice-president of research and market development at Turner International Asia Pacific, Duncan Morris, told Metro .

The Calcutta average is Rs 165 a month, an increase of Rs 38 since 2006. Even this is the second lowest in the country. The corresponding figures for Mumbai, Delhi and Ludhiana are Rs 215, Rs 213 and Rs 402.

Children in this city, the survey claims, not only receive a pittance as pocket money but also do not know how to spend. When the respondents were asked to think how to spend Rs 5,000, as many as 72 per cent couldn’t.