The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Cost of inflation adds up to multiple woes for Dalits

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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Cost of inflation adds up to multiple woes for Dalits

D. Karthikeyan

— Photo: K. Ganesan

Mariamma with her children in Madurai.

MADURAI: The Dalit colony at Anna Nagar here has people whose purchasing power is below the international benchmark of (the equivalent of) $1 a 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.

The Ravi family

Living in a thatched house without electricity for a rent of Rs. 150 a month at SMP Colony, a Dalit neighbourhood near Anna Nagar, Ravi gets work for 10 days a month and earns around Rs.1,200 a month (Rs. 120 daily), out of which Rs. 20 a day goes towards transport charges. His wife Ramathai, a flower vendor, earns Rs. 75 a day.

They have two children — Priya (Class VI) and Maharaja (Class V) — studying in a nearby government school. Without any savings 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 Ms. Ramathai. Rice is the staple diet. Chapattis, 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 increased sharply, Ms. Ramathai says they do not go for dhal varieties but buy vegetables, 100 grams each of a couple of varieties, and prepare a meal. Ravi, who sometimes consumes liquor, spends Rs. 30 a day on it.

The family goes to movie halls once in six months and buys clothes only during Deepavali. For medical treatment, they go to a government hospital.

The Krishnan family

Krishnan works as a bus conductor for a daily wage of Rs. 75. He has two children and lives with his wife in a concrete-roof house in the same colony. “We have never bought rice in bulk. We buy 5 kg of rice and whenever it gets exhausted we go for another 5 kg. We also buy wheat in a ration shop,” he says.

Anna Jothi, a homemaker, says, “We used to buy a 500 ml packet of milk earlier for the children. After the increase in milk prices we have reduced our consumption to 250 ml.” The family consumes non-vegetarian food twice a month and avoids going to the cinema. She says the prices of almost all the essential commodities have gone up and, at times, “we even skip buying Horlicks for the baby.” Ms. Anna Jothi uses kerosene for cooking, a litre of which comes only for two days. Kerosene is sold at Rs. 35 in the black market whereas the PDS price is Rs. 12 a litre.

Stating that cable television, house rent, electricity bill and water tax eat up a major chunk of his wages, Mr. Krishnan says that even if they think of saving something it will be impossible. “We are pushed to the extreme of pawning our jewels each time we fall short of money to meet our expenses.”

With all this, he has a desire to make his son a pilot. He spends Rs. 4,000 a year as school fees.

The Mariamma family

Mariamma (50), a widow, lives with her two daughters. An occasional domestic worker and rag picker, she earns Rs. 40 a day.

Lamenting that a cup of tea costs Rs. 6, Mariamma buys half a kg of rice each day and 100 grams of the cheapest vegetable in the market. She says that 100 grams of brinjal was sold at Rs. 2.50 but now it costs Rs.3.50. She rarely uses oil for cooking but buys 50 ml occasionally, which costs Rs. 5. She uses firewood for cooking, and buys beef occasionally for Rs. 20, as mutton and chicken are very expensive. Mariamma says that she gets old clothes for herself and her daughters from the places where she goes for work.

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