The US President Mr.Bush’s statement that due to the rising living standards of the 350 million middle class people in India and in China, the prices of food products in the world have gone up, is far away from the truth. And we need not worry much about what President Mr.Bush said because he is not an Adam Smith and of course we can also heave a sigh of relief because, after January, 2009, we fervently hope, that Mr.Bush will not become the President of the IMF or The World Bank and such accidents will not happen.
Exactly on the same day, when Mr.Bush issued such a staggering statement, we came to know about the cost of inflation in India which has added to the multiple woes of Dalit people in India and we submit the sample of case studies of two families in India.
The Dalit colony at Anna Nagar , Madurai here has people whose purchasing power is below the International bench mark of $ 1 day.They live in squalor, mired in unemployment, illiteracy, poor access to education and food insecurity.Dilapidated structures, stagnant muddy water and children in tattered clothes are common sights.
Here the material and non material manifestations of deprivation are at play.These Dalits are disadvantaged and insecure in terms of economic realities and their social relations have implications in terms of their relative social experience.
Let us take the example of two dalit families as case studies :
1)The Ravi Family:
Living in a thatched house without electricity for a rent of Rs 150 (below $4) a month at SMP colony, a Dalit neighbour in Anna Nagar.Ravi gets work 10 days a month and earns around Rs 1,200 (Around $ 30) a month ( Rs 120 daily ( around $ 3), out of which Rs 20 a day goes towards transport charges.His wife Ramathai, a flower vendor earns Rs 75/-(below $ 2 ) a day.They have two children – Priya (class VI), Maharaja (class V), studying in a nearby government school. Without any savings (hardly there remains any surplus to put by) or gold as investment, everyday life is full of hardship for this family.’We never buy milk to make tea.Instead, we buy tea from a nearby stall.’says Ramathai. Rice is the staple diet Chapatis,pooris and pongal are rarities but they do go for the occasional meat on alternate Sundays, she adds.
Stating that the price of cooking oil has sharply increased, they do not go for dhal varieties but buy vegetables, 100 gms each of a couple of varities and prepare a meal.Ravi sometimes consumes liquor, spending Rs 30 a day on it.
The family goes to movie halls once in six months and buys clothes only during Deepavali a festival.For medical treatment they go to the government hospital.
2.The Mariamma Family :-
Mariamma (50), a widow, lives with her tow daughters.An occasional domestic worker and rag picker, she earns Rs 40/- a day (Around $1 ).
Lamenting that a cup of tea costs Rs 6/-, she buys half a Kg of rice each day and 100 gms of the cheapest vegetable in the market.She says that 100 gms of brinjal which was sold at Rs 2.50 is now Rs 3.50.She rarely uses oil for cooking but buy 50 ml occasionally, which costs Rs 5. She uses firewood for cooking and buys beef occasionally for Rs 20, since mutton and chicken are expensive and she cannot afford to buy. She gets old clothes for herself and her daughters from the places where she goes for work.
Such is the sorry state of affairs of an average Indian middle class family. President Bush’s remarks has only added insult to their injuries.