The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Rising prices and rural households

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 11, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Rising prices and rural households

D. Karthikeyan

Pandian, a landless labourer, with his family members.

MADURAI: For the farmers in Theni district, wheat and wheat products, idly, dosa and other tiffin items are a yearly-once affair, mostly during Deepavali or the local temple festival.

The Ponraj family

Ponraj (52) is a small farmer with a landholding of four and a half acres at Kanniservaipatti. His income (a seasonal affair) on an average is Rs. 20,000, which he has to use for three months. The family has a cow, which takes care of milk and milk product consumption.

His wife Ayyammal (48) helps him in the farm. “Once a week I go to the market to buy vegetables and for a month the household expenses come around Rs. 3000. We buy rice in bulk, mostly one quintal, for a price of Rs. 800,” she says. The family somehow manages the rise in prices by reducing intake and choosing alternatives to regular food items. It lives in a tiled house and has a little savings and a few sovereigns of gold.

The grape cutters

Anandhi (42), a farm hand who cuts grapes at a vineyard in Anamalaiyanpatti, hails from Chinna Obulapuram. She gets a daily wage of Rs. 60 for cutting grapes and packing them in boxes. Grape cutters get their daily work through a ‘kankani system’ in which a woman among them takes care of the recruitment of daily wage earners and gets double wages for that. “We normally get work on all days,” says Anandhi.

Her husband gets work for 15 days in a month. The family has no land and there is no saving and jewellery. They also have loans, taken for marriage, to clear. She says prices of all vegetables have gone up and they have reduced the consumption of milk from the half a litre to 200 ml a day. New clothes figure in the budget only during festive season, mostly once a year.

The Pandian family

Pandian (58) is a landless labourer belonging to Karunagamuthanpatti. His wife Pushpam (50) takes care of the household. He works as farm hand for 20 days in a month for Rs. 100 a day. He looks after his three grandchildren. The family buys 20 kg of rice under the Rs. 2-a-kg rice scheme. When exhausted, they have to buy the same quality for Rs. 20 a kg at a grocery shop. In a month, they have to buy another 20 kg. The family goes for usury loans many a time to meet its household expenses.

The family buys vegetables for Rs. 30 a day and goes for the cheapest and affordable varieties. Says Pushpam, “The same quantity of vegetables we used to buy for Rs. 30 now costs double the price. We still go for it as we have children to feed.”

The family buys palm oil from a public distribution shop. It does not buy milk but buys tea from stalls. Pushpam feels that though the Rs. 2-a kg rice scheme is an excellent one for the poor, it loses its standing because of the rise in prices of other essential commodities. Rice is the staple diet for this family and tiffin items are prepared only twice a year -- Deepavali and annual temple festival.

They consume non-vegetarian food only when guests visit them. With no savings and jewellery, the family lives in a house, which is an ancestral property. Free colour television set given by the government provides the needed entertainment for which the family spends Rs. 100 on cable connection. They buy dresses during local festivals and Deepavali.

The Mani family

M.S. Mani (44) is a marginal worker living in Indira Colony of Karunagamuthanpatti. He works in farms and does wood work and wire knitting for chairs. He is a Dalit who gets work for 15 to 20 days in a month.

He is paid Rs. 10 a day and lives in a house on a lease of Rs. 5000 for a 3-year period. His wife Selvi (34) works occasionally for a daily wage of Rs. 50. The family has no land and no savings and goes for usury loans from a local moneylender if it is not able to meet the expenses. In spite of a rise in prices, it buys the same quantity of milk. “We have reduced the consumption of vegetables and meat,” says Selvi. She buys dhal varieties once a week. “Last week, we went to the market and bought provisions for Rs.200 and now the same items cost around Rs. 300.”

Their only son is studying in class IX in a nearby Government Kallar High School. He has health problems for which a substantial share of the family income goes since they visit a private hospital.

The Ilangovan family

K. Ilangovan (31) of the same colony works as a mason. His daily income is Rs.200 and on an average he gets work for 15 days in a month. His wife Muthulakshmi (29) looks after their three children. The Rs 2-a-kg rice scheme takes care of the family for the first half of the month and then it goes for another 20 kg, says Ilangovan.

“Till now, we used to buy one litre of milk, but since the rise in prices we have cut it down to 200 ml. We do not buy vegetables and adjust with ‘rasam’ and a bundle of ‘pappad,’” says Muthulakshmi. “Whenever affordable, we buy chicken.”

They have a house provided under the group housing scheme for Dalits.

The family goes for usury loans when not able to meet the expenses.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu