Lungi is the most popular traditional attire among Indian men: Survey

Lungi is the most widely worn traditional garment by males in India, followed by dhoti and the male kurta-pyjama set, data from the National Sample Survey Office for 2011-2012 shows.

The survey was carried out among 100,000 households. It showed that 52 percent of the respondents reported purchasing one lungi in the past year. This was followed with 21 percent of participants purchasing a dhoti, while 13 percent buying a kurta-pyjama in the year before the survey was carried out.

Variations in the purchases vary from state to state. Broadly speaking, lungi and dhoti, both are more popular in the east and the south than in the rest of the country, whereas kurta-pyjama suit is preferred in the northern parts of the country.

Odisha tops in consumption of lungis by their males, followed by Bihar, West Bengal, Tripura and Tamil Nadu. Haryana and Delhi took the lion’s share of the households that purchased the kurta-pyjama suit

The southern state of Kerala purchased the largest share of dhotis, followed by Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Bihar and Rajasthan.

Lungi was more popular among the people from weaker income groups, while kurta-Pyjama was a choice among the richer households. Though Dhoti was seen to be a roughly equivalent pick for both income groups.

Compared to sari, lungi seems to be a pale comparison. Sari was the top choice of attire for 8 out of every 10 women surveyed in Indian households.

The data also suggest that median households in India spend more on traditional attire as compared to the western style of clothing. However, the difference in the spending on both western and traditional attire was much lower in urban areas as compared to the rural areas.

The report has counted includes dhoti, lungi, sari, cloth for shirts, pyjama, kurta, salwar, kurta-pyjama suits (male and female), etc. as traditional attire, while western attire includes coats, jackets, T-shirts, skirts /frocks, shorts, trousers, cloth for coats, trousers, suit, etc.

The northern states of Punjab and Haryana showed a greater spending on western attire as part of their clothing budget. This was followed by Assam and Madhya Pradesh that spent more on western clothes. By contrast, the southern states spent lesser.

There is also a sharp class difference when it comes to the type of attire purchased. Though the share of traditional clothing exceeds that of western attire for all classes, richer classes spend proportionately more on Western attire than the poorer classes.

The top ten earning household of a median of 100 households spends 34 percent of its clothing budget to Western attire whereas the bottom ten earning households allot 18 percent of its clothing expenditure to Western attire.