“Now we have become three from two…” his voice was grim and eyes reflected sadness. I wondered how a young man could downplay his fatherhood like that! But by that time, I had done the calculations. What lied in front of me was an economic reality and a human tragedy.
He is one of around 35 security personnel employed in our college. A young man of around 30, he is skinny but fit, sports a thin moustache and has very sharp eyes. He sounds positive, enjoys tea once every afternoon, and has learnt a lot about operating PCs since he has been posted in the computer centre. He is honest, and has returned back my pen-drive that I left in the lab by mistake, two times recently...
The calculation which came out of our chat of about five minutes tells this: His duty for 8 hours a day earns him Rs 130. He does overtime 20 days a month. Hence, (20 days X Rs 260) plus (10 days X Rs 130) equals to Rs 6500 a month. Is that enough? How much does he spend? “We are able to maintain in Rs 2500 a month” he replies. And obviously, he sends the remaining money to his home where his old parents and may be some unwed sisters would depend on him…
“Where do you live?” I asked to confirm. “Where else? In the nearest jhuggi-jhopdi (slum)…” And the house? “It costs Rs 2500 a month… But we share it with five more families; otherwise we can’t afford it…” I am taken aback. To share a one bedroom house with five families! For a young couple with a newly born baby! That is something… And of course the house would be an illegally made structure which would have a leaking roof, with community toilets and no clean drinking water…
The calculation tells that he earns Rs 6500 a month, spends Rs 3000, and sends home Rs 3500 a month. Perhaps his wife would also be working, earning around Rs 3000 a month, and hence both of them would save around 78,000 in a year. Of course this will happen only if there are no health related problems, no absenteeism from work due to any reasons, no threat on life due to regional political parties, and no yearly floods in the city destroying their household…
The economics still makes sense. If the young family is able to save more than fifty thousand rupees at the end of a favourable year, life is still worth carrying on. Is it so?
A deeper analysis tells a different picture. The family of three is able to maintain life in Rs 2500 a month. That means Rs 83 a day. Means Rs 28 a person a day. If all this money is spent on food alone, it means Rs 9 a person a meal (assuming three meals a day). How is this possible? How is this possible in Mumbai? With this tight budget, what will happen if tomorrow his wife is diagnosed with a serious illness? Can he spend Rs 2000 a month on medicines? With this earning, will they educate their child? If yes, then for how long? How can they share a one bedroom house with five more persons? This would happen because they need the house only during night for sleeping; what if two persons become sick at the same time? Where do they keep their savings? Can they ever get a bank account opened in Mumbai, without address proof? What if one of them meets with an accident? What if he is fired from his job? What if there is an urgent need to go to his native place; how many times can they afford railway tickets? At the end of it all, why is it that he is unhappy at the birth of his first child?
What wrong did his newly born baby do that it was born amidst such poverty? Did you ever feel that your life was tough? If life is still worth carrying on for this young father; do you have the right to complain? Also, can we learn something from his life? Can we learn something from life? To begin with: We can neither control our birth, nor our death; but we can certainly control what we do between the two...
He is one of around 35 security personnel employed in our college. A young man of around 30, he is skinny but fit, sports a thin moustache and has very sharp eyes. He sounds positive, enjoys tea once every afternoon, and has learnt a lot about operating PCs since he has been posted in the computer centre. He is honest, and has returned back my pen-drive that I left in the lab by mistake, two times recently...
The calculation which came out of our chat of about five minutes tells this: His duty for 8 hours a day earns him Rs 130. He does overtime 20 days a month. Hence, (20 days X Rs 260) plus (10 days X Rs 130) equals to Rs 6500 a month. Is that enough? How much does he spend? “We are able to maintain in Rs 2500 a month” he replies. And obviously, he sends the remaining money to his home where his old parents and may be some unwed sisters would depend on him…
“Where do you live?” I asked to confirm. “Where else? In the nearest jhuggi-jhopdi (slum)…” And the house? “It costs Rs 2500 a month… But we share it with five more families; otherwise we can’t afford it…” I am taken aback. To share a one bedroom house with five families! For a young couple with a newly born baby! That is something… And of course the house would be an illegally made structure which would have a leaking roof, with community toilets and no clean drinking water…
The calculation tells that he earns Rs 6500 a month, spends Rs 3000, and sends home Rs 3500 a month. Perhaps his wife would also be working, earning around Rs 3000 a month, and hence both of them would save around 78,000 in a year. Of course this will happen only if there are no health related problems, no absenteeism from work due to any reasons, no threat on life due to regional political parties, and no yearly floods in the city destroying their household…
The economics still makes sense. If the young family is able to save more than fifty thousand rupees at the end of a favourable year, life is still worth carrying on. Is it so?
A deeper analysis tells a different picture. The family of three is able to maintain life in Rs 2500 a month. That means Rs 83 a day. Means Rs 28 a person a day. If all this money is spent on food alone, it means Rs 9 a person a meal (assuming three meals a day). How is this possible? How is this possible in Mumbai? With this tight budget, what will happen if tomorrow his wife is diagnosed with a serious illness? Can he spend Rs 2000 a month on medicines? With this earning, will they educate their child? If yes, then for how long? How can they share a one bedroom house with five more persons? This would happen because they need the house only during night for sleeping; what if two persons become sick at the same time? Where do they keep their savings? Can they ever get a bank account opened in Mumbai, without address proof? What if one of them meets with an accident? What if he is fired from his job? What if there is an urgent need to go to his native place; how many times can they afford railway tickets? At the end of it all, why is it that he is unhappy at the birth of his first child?
What wrong did his newly born baby do that it was born amidst such poverty? Did you ever feel that your life was tough? If life is still worth carrying on for this young father; do you have the right to complain? Also, can we learn something from his life? Can we learn something from life? To begin with: We can neither control our birth, nor our death; but we can certainly control what we do between the two...
(Rahul)
2 comments:
thanks. i think i needed to read this.
Nice post Rahul. It is very tragic, but what comes out loud is that we do not have any right to complain about our lives. Such experiences show us that we should use our lives to do as much good for the society as possible. I had this revelation when I volunteered for Salaam Baalak Trust, an NGO for street children in Delhi.
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