People in the poorest fifth are the least likely to have any kind of rationcard (the key to public handouts), whereas the richest fifth are the most likely to.
It would be better to stop having supper together, he said, not just because of the talk but because it was hard to get enough meat for two people on one rationcard.
According to Pyara Lal, the manager of Shahabpur's government ration shop, around a quarter of the village's BPL card-holders are relatively prosperous patels a consequence of the last two pradhans having come from that caste-group.