The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Milk, vegetables have become ‘luxury items’

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Tuesday, Apr 22, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Milk, vegetables have become ‘luxury items’

Karnataka Bureau

The rising prices have made life difficult for the poor

Bangalore: As the price of every commodity goes through the roof and incomes remain where they are, several essential items are fast turning into “luxury items” for the poor. Crucial sources of nutrition such as vegetables and milk are being increasingly shunned by the lower economic groups as money goes towards buying essentials like rice and ragi.

Saroja K., a tailor in a garment factory on Mysore Road, says that her everyday allocation for vegetables is Rs. 10 and she buys whatever falls within that budget. With a salary of Rs. 3,000 per month and a matching amount her husband brings in as an industrial worker, the family can put aside no more than that. While she got a kg of tomato for Rs. 5 a month ago, it costs Rs. 20 now. “Beans costs Rs. 35 and I can barely buy quarter kg,” she says.Ms. Saroja’s first priority is the education of her two daughters, who go to private English medium schools. “That costs Rs. 20,000 a year and I would rather eat less than compromise on their education,” she says firmly. “I don’t want them to end up struggling for every morsel like me.”

Nagamma, a domestic help at Banashankari III Stage, spent Rs. 600 a month on rations and vegetables less than a year ago. She now spends twice as much for a smaller quantity. The incomes from her own and her 17-year-old daughter’s work come to about Rs. 4,500 a month. Her first two children have dropped out of school and the other two go to a government school. “They get their afternoon meal there. My elder daughter and I make do with whatever we get in the houses we work, and cook only at night,” she says.

Savings have been shrinking for Rukmina Devi too, a migrant construction worker from Bihar. She, her husband Chetankumar and their two young sons live at a construction site at Yelahanka, depending on a single (and erratic) income, which, on a good week is Rs. 670.

Ms. Rukmina Devi identifies four commodities as being the source of the greatest expenditure: rice, wheat, milk and kerosene. With no access to the public distribution system, the family spends no less than Rs. 400 a month on kerosene, accounting for nearly 15 per cent of the income. “The price of kerosene has increased by Rs. 2 in just a month’s time. We have begun to use more firewood to cook,” she says.

B.V. Raghavendra, an autorickshaw driver, says that the increase in minimum fare from Rs. 12 to Rs. 14 took into account only the rise in petrol prices, not that of food. “I earn Rs. 500 on a good day for 12 hours of work. I pay Rs. 150 to the owner. Petrol and other expenses add up to at least Rs. 250. I am left with Rs. 100. On a day you are caught for traffic offence, you go home empty-handed,” he says.

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