How the poor pay more for rice and sugar than you do.

Dear entitled reader, you are wrong and have been for quite some time.
“Poor people are uneducated, not stupid,” Rajen Makhijani said. I’d like to add to it and go as far as to say, “Entitled people (most of them) are educated but are vapid stupids.” For so long, the government’s practice of giving out food, healthcare services, and essentials to poor people for free has been reprimanded by us. And surely, why not? Why should we, the taxpayers, sponsor the groceries of people who cannot get to move their lazy bottoms to work? Why are poor people entitled to free stuff?- we ask, calling them illegitimate. 

So here’s what substantiates that the poor deserve what they get for free. Suppose your salary is ₹50,000; your per-day income would be ₹1,667. And you go to buy one kg rice that costs ₹50. That is close to 3% percent of your daily income. Just 3%. 
According to Trading Economics, the minimum daily wage of unskilled labour is ₹178 per day. Now one kg of rice is 28% of that daily wage. Just rice. If not anything, they would need a packet of salt of ₹20 to eat with it. There is approximately 40% of the income. We are not counting clothes, rent, education, or healthcare yet. If they don’t get it for free, they cannot survive, literally.

“Wars aren’t fought to help the poor in this country; they are fought to protect corporate interests overseas.”

I, the writer who wrote this piece sitting in an air-conditioned room, and you, the reader, being able to afford this piece, are privileged and entitled. Poor people do not feel entitled; they do it for survival; to put food on the table, to put a piece of garment on their skinny bodies, and for modicum healthcare.

Do you still criticise the government’s choice to give these people free food? 

 The story would have been less tragic had it been just that they earn less money, so their expenses are barely met. But, being poor is more expensive than you would think. 

Banks say- “Sorry, no money for you!”

Believe it or not, one of the biggest fears of these grey, dry, rotund bankers is high NPAs. Why would any bank want to stain their precious ratio red to help the poor when they can just say no?

Sometimes, on relatively luckier occasions, when the money-grubbing bankers do agree to loan the money, they ask the poor for collateral. Now you tell me, how would a person living in a mud house with a meagre income provide secure collateral? The result of this dire need for money steers them towards informal lending. 

According to a report by Business Standard, the cash-driven informal credit market had reached ₹15.95 lakh crores in 2021. Who knows what the real numbers are. Not to mention the interest rates on them are exorbitantly high, ranging from 25-40%. Yet, we have the audacity to ask, “why is the poor becoming poorer?”

Because, my friend, the whole system is designed to. 

CIBIL says- “You (not) da Man!”

Loans at affordable interest rates only come to those with a good track record of credit score. And banks definitely ain’t interested in the poor. There is one more way for the poor to get a loan. 

For a poor person who doesn’t even know what credit history means, and doesn’t have any collateral to offer, institutions like NBFCs and startups emerge as the new-age gods of prosperity. How? By offering loans at interest rates as low as 10.99% to 27% as opposed to the high 49% that "normal people" can get. (This article is about them. This article is about them. This article is about them.)
Yet, aside from all the leverages of being poor, the amount they have to repay with interests adds a ton to their debt burden. 

Inflation - the necessary evil

Remember how we all reacted when the price of vegetable oil went from ₹95 to ₹140 to ₹170? These money-thirsty corporates did not stop at anything! While an almost 100% increase in the price was ‘still-affordable’ for us, what would have a poor man done with a daily income of just ₹178? 

They fled. In masses. Need I remind you of the Covid-19 lockdown scenes where migrant workers left with just a pair of clothes and their set of equipment; equipment because they could find work anywhere and they could not afford not to work?

Abibas vs Adidas: A metaphor for lifestyle

Before we delve into the intricacies, here is a story for you. 

Rohan Nanda and Abhimanyu Singh met in college and are best friends now. Rohan’s family is crazy rich; Abhimanyu’s, not so much. The boys were going to participate in a contest that was three months away and they needed new shoes. 
Rohan got an Adidas for ₹1000. Abhi got an Abibas for ₹300. (Read that again, they are not the same).
They started practising for the contest.
After three months, before the contest even started, Abhi’s shoes tore to pieces and the sole came off. He then had to go and get another Abibas, which barely lasted the contest, and joined the first one in the trash. 
While Rohan’s Adidas was good enough to use even in the next year’s contest, Abhi had changed 4 shoes in that duration. Poor Abhi. (Literally and rhetorically!)

This is the story of every poor. They don’t realise but end up paying a lot more than the rich just because they cannot afford the chunkier sum to pay for quality at one go. 

The poor have a higher cost of living than YOU!

Before you question my subheading and go all ‘this is absolutely ludicrous!’, I would like to clear the air by mentioning that the cost of living DOES NOT completely depend on the standard of living, and I’ll tell you how. 

A person living in an apartment building of a posh society has to pay a small sum for monthly maintenance, say ₹5,000. A person living in a slum, on the other hand, pays 70% of their daily income to extortionists for letting a family of 8 live in one room; for the illegal electricity points without which there would be no running fans in the house, and even for water. They pay all of the upfront charges associated with these, plus bribes for letting them to just exist. 

Owning vs Renting a home for the poor

Let’s not waste both of our time and straightforwardly admit that ‘owning’ a house is not an option for the poor. So, they have the option to rent. Yes, they do. 

The rent in tier 1 and 2 cities is so high for a decent house that, a person would rather pay a home loan for twenty years than pay the monthly rent for the next 8-10 years. To top it up, landowners would charge an advance deposit of 3-4 months rent as security. 

People seem like they don’t fall under India’s demographics, since they clearly do not have to right to live with dignity!

The get-rich-quick schemes

There are no get-rich-quick schemes. “That's just someone else getting rich off you” - Naval Ravikant, Indian Entrepreneur and Investor. 

It’s easy for a person with restricted finances to fall prey to get-rich-quick schemes. Fake job promises, guaranteed win in lotteries, proportional profit margins - all when you give some money to get so much.  

The Bottom Line

“Cool, I get your point. But, why can’t they try to get a decent job and make a life out of the glum?” Do you think they don’t want to? They desperately do. Everything you see and you are is conditioned by the socioeconomic class you come from. 

These people did not have the right education, nor were they taught the manners and etiquette to behave in public or in the workplace. An interviewer takes a look at them, and even before asking the first question, they have made up their mind that “this person isn’t the right fit; they do not belong.” 

So the next time, instead of discussing the poor and rich in an after-party setting, talk about the plights of the poor and the primacy of the privileged. 

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