Families wince as price monster bites hard
The price rise that was debated in Parliament on Wednesday has been discussed at kitchen tables across the country for months now. Faced with an unrelenting climb in prices, especially of food items, families have been tightening the purse strings and cutting back on luxuries.
Middle class and upper middle class families say that food prices are pinching hard, but they are lucky not to have to cut food items out of their menus. “Eggs, fish, dal, rice — everything has doubled in price over the last year and a half,” says Wilma Fernandes, who teaches at architectural colleges in Mumbai. Fernandes, her husband and daughter all work and the family supports two school-going children. “School expenses like notebooks and bus fees have shot up. We are lucky to have three working family members, but I don’t know how those who are worse off manage,” she says.
Gaurav Dhir, a 28-year-old south Delhi resident who runs a social media marketing company, is one of a joint family of 10, which is being forced to juggle its expenses with rising prices. “For middle-class families, education is all-important. So my aunt and uncle will not skimp on spending on their kids’ education, but this means that they haven’t been on a holiday, even to Shimla, in two years,” he says.
For lower middle-class and poorer households, the price rise has forced painful decisions. “Since I have two young sons, I cannot cut down on the quantity of food, but I have cut down on oil and make dal less often in my house,” says Kanta Dhole, 45, a maid who works in Pune’s Aundh area. “To save money, I will buy my sons new clothes only for Diwali. This is creating fights in our house,” says Dhole, whose husband washes cars and sons, aged 16 and 18, are unemployed. “We were able to put away Rs 4,000 every month to buy a plot of land on which to live, but for a year now I have only been able to save Rs 2,000,” she says.
Vikas and Suneeta Kulkarni are a retired couple who live with Vikas’ 90-yearold mother in Bangalore. “Our pensions are constant, but prices are rising so high that our son who lives in the US now sends us some money every month. The cost of a doctor’s consultation seems to rise every time we have to take my mother,and I spend Rs 500 per week on my car, even though I hardly seem to go anywhere,” says Vikas.
In such circumstances, shocks become almost impossible for the vulnerable to absorb. “My husband had a job in a factory that made spare parts for auto rickshaws, and I work as a maid. Our monthly income came to Rs, 10,000 per month,” says Fatema Ashraf, who lives in a slum near the Nizamuddin mosque in Delhi. “Last year my husband developed respiratory infections. Now he has lost his job, and with an infant and his bad health, I had to take a loan from a neighbour. We are still forced to depend on the community for one meal a day,” s a i d Ashraf.
Middle class and upper middle class families say that food prices are pinching hard, but they are lucky not to have to cut food items out of their menus. “Eggs, fish, dal, rice — everything has doubled in price over the last year and a half,” says Wilma Fernandes, who teaches at architectural colleges in Mumbai. Fernandes, her husband and daughter all work and the family supports two school-going children. “School expenses like notebooks and bus fees have shot up. We are lucky to have three working family members, but I don’t know how those who are worse off manage,” she says.
Gaurav Dhir, a 28-year-old south Delhi resident who runs a social media marketing company, is one of a joint family of 10, which is being forced to juggle its expenses with rising prices. “For middle-class families, education is all-important. So my aunt and uncle will not skimp on spending on their kids’ education, but this means that they haven’t been on a holiday, even to Shimla, in two years,” he says.
For lower middle-class and poorer households, the price rise has forced painful decisions. “Since I have two young sons, I cannot cut down on the quantity of food, but I have cut down on oil and make dal less often in my house,” says Kanta Dhole, 45, a maid who works in Pune’s Aundh area. “To save money, I will buy my sons new clothes only for Diwali. This is creating fights in our house,” says Dhole, whose husband washes cars and sons, aged 16 and 18, are unemployed. “We were able to put away Rs 4,000 every month to buy a plot of land on which to live, but for a year now I have only been able to save Rs 2,000,” she says.
Vikas and Suneeta Kulkarni are a retired couple who live with Vikas’ 90-yearold mother in Bangalore. “Our pensions are constant, but prices are rising so high that our son who lives in the US now sends us some money every month. The cost of a doctor’s consultation seems to rise every time we have to take my mother,and I spend Rs 500 per week on my car, even though I hardly seem to go anywhere,” says Vikas.
In such circumstances, shocks become almost impossible for the vulnerable to absorb. “My husband had a job in a factory that made spare parts for auto rickshaws, and I work as a maid. Our monthly income came to Rs, 10,000 per month,” says Fatema Ashraf, who lives in a slum near the Nizamuddin mosque in Delhi. “Last year my husband developed respiratory infections. Now he has lost his job, and with an infant and his bad health, I had to take a loan from a neighbour. We are still forced to depend on the community for one meal a day,” s a i d Ashraf.
Less of meat & fruits on the plate as costs shoot through the roof
Subodh Varma TIMES INSIGHT GROUP
On the face of it, Sunita couldn’t be more different from Radha. Sunita is educated, her husband is an accountant in a private company earning about Rs 30,000 per month and they live in a two-bedroom flat in East Delhi. Radha is her maid, a Class-V dropout, earning about Rs 7,000 per month working in five houses. Her husband is a tailor with erratic income. Their lives are as completely different as are their dreams.
But raging inflation has brought these two women closer. Sunita says that till a few years back they could have meat twice or thrice a week. Now they think twice before making some. They are picky about fruits, processed products like butter and snacks, even milk products like cheese. “It’s not a crisis, but we have to think about the future. We can’t spend too much in these times of mehangai (price rise),” she says.
Radha’s tale is darker. “We stopped eating dal some years ago. In winters, we used to have eggs and mutton sometimes. Now, we don’t think about it. Sometimes I get dahi for five rupees and we have it with roti,” she rues.
Wholesale prices of food commodities have gone up by 50% between 1999 and 2009, but consumer prices — what Sunita and Radha pay at the local shops — have zoomed up by over 80% with some commodities like fruits and vegetables, eggs and meat and milk rising much more.
It is often argued that eating habits of Indians are changing because of better income. They are eating more eggs, meat, milk products and fruits. But this truth is being fast eroded by uncontrolled inflation.
What Sunita and Radha have to say about their lives was confirmed by comparing a recent report of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) giving key findings from the 66th round, with a similar report on the 55th round from 2000.
In urban areas, the proportion of households consuming eggs, fish, and various types of meat including chicken has declined in one
decade between 1999-2000 and 2009-10. A similar trend can be seen in rural areas except in the case of chicken consumption, which has increased from 14% of households to 17% of households.
Within the declining proportion of families consuming these items, there is an increase in per capita consumption — but it is meager, almost negligible.
Egg consumption in rural areas, for example, increased from 1 to 1.7 per person per month in 10 years. In urban areas, it increased from 2 per person per month to 2.7.
Chicken is the only item that has shown a considerable increase — of about three times — over this decade. But even then, chicken consumption averages out to just 123 grams in rural areas and 180 grams in urban areas per person, in one month.
The NSSO report again records the continuing trend of declining consumption of cereals from 12.7 to 11.4 kg per person per month in rural areas and from 10.4 kg to 9.4 kg in urban areas, between 1999 and 2009.Pulses too show similar declines.
Milk consumption per person increased from 3.79 to 4.12 litres per month in rural areas and from 5.1 to 5.4 litres in urban areas in a decade. Comparison for fruits is not possible because of the limited number of fruits enumerated in 1999.
-TOI
Hindus and Muslims fasting during Shravan and Ramzan are girding for a monthlong struggle to keep their budget in check as the prices of fruit, essential to both rituals, rose by Rs 20 per kg—and not for want of supply.
Anant Tirloskar, the manager of the Apna Bazar outlet in Andheri (west), agrees that costs have spiralled since the festive season’s arrival this week. “There is no shortage of fruit,” he admits. “Still, the cost of Fuji apples has risen to Rs 170 from Rs 150 a week ago and regular apples are selling for Rs 130, up from Rs 110. Papaya has risen by Rs 15 per kg in a week and is selling at Rs 40 per kg. Custard apple and pomegranate have risen by Rs 20 too and are now available for Rs 130 per kg. The trend will continue through Ramzan and Shravan, but do remember that Ganeshotsav begins on September 1 so we could witness a prolonged spell of price rise.”
Advocate Waris Pathan is appalled at the rates being charged in his neighbourhood Bandra. “Although one can break roza with dates, salt or water, most rozedars move
on to fruit because it is high in water content as well as light on the stomach after a hard day’s abstinence. Poor people visit mosques to partake of the community iftar but ordinary families have to bear the costs themselves.”
Pathan complains how food costs, particularly in upmarket Bandra that has a vast population of Muslims, have gone up three times since last year. Indeed, watermelon is selling for Rs 70 to 100 apiece in Bandra.
Not too far away, across the Kalina-Kurla belt, papaya has risen to Rs 40 per kg, up from last week’s price of Rs 25. Fuji apples, the ones individually packed in net cases, have risen by Rs 20 to Rs 150 per kg. Pomegranate is selling for Rs 80 a dozen, perhaps the only fruit left affordable owing to increased supply.
The family of Karan Patwa, who sells imitation jewellery to the Kolis at Versova fishing village, is hardpressed to observe Shravan rituals because of unbridled costs. “We fast through the day and eat a vegetarian meal comprising fruit at night. However, because Shravan and Ramzan coincide this year, fruit has become unaffordable for most families,” he says. Pointing to the vicious circle of inflation, Patwa says that roadside vendors are forced to raise prices because of increased domestic expenditure as well as harassment by civic officials. “They organize retail rates to cover the increased cost of living and losses due to confiscation,” he says.
In most quarters, the devout have sacrificed choice at the altar of inflation, forcedly picking cheaper items like banana and watermelon supplemented by fritters.
Rs. 20 rise in fruit prices LEAVES A BAD TASTE
Despite Enough Stocks, Costs Increase Inexplicably With The Start Of Ramzan & Shravan
Bella Jaisinghani | TNN
Hindus and Muslims fasting during Shravan and Ramzan are girding for a monthlong struggle to keep their budget in check as the prices of fruit, essential to both rituals, rose by Rs 20 per kg—and not for want of supply.
Anant Tirloskar, the manager of the Apna Bazar outlet in Andheri (west), agrees that costs have spiralled since the festive season’s arrival this week. “There is no shortage of fruit,” he admits. “Still, the cost of Fuji apples has risen to Rs 170 from Rs 150 a week ago and regular apples are selling for Rs 130, up from Rs 110. Papaya has risen by Rs 15 per kg in a week and is selling at Rs 40 per kg. Custard apple and pomegranate have risen by Rs 20 too and are now available for Rs 130 per kg. The trend will continue through Ramzan and Shravan, but do remember that Ganeshotsav begins on September 1 so we could witness a prolonged spell of price rise.”
Advocate Waris Pathan is appalled at the rates being charged in his neighbourhood Bandra. “Although one can break roza with dates, salt or water, most rozedars move
on to fruit because it is high in water content as well as light on the stomach after a hard day’s abstinence. Poor people visit mosques to partake of the community iftar but ordinary families have to bear the costs themselves.”
Pathan complains how food costs, particularly in upmarket Bandra that has a vast population of Muslims, have gone up three times since last year. Indeed, watermelon is selling for Rs 70 to 100 apiece in Bandra.
Not too far away, across the Kalina-Kurla belt, papaya has risen to Rs 40 per kg, up from last week’s price of Rs 25. Fuji apples, the ones individually packed in net cases, have risen by Rs 20 to Rs 150 per kg. Pomegranate is selling for Rs 80 a dozen, perhaps the only fruit left affordable owing to increased supply.
The family of Karan Patwa, who sells imitation jewellery to the Kolis at Versova fishing village, is hardpressed to observe Shravan rituals because of unbridled costs. “We fast through the day and eat a vegetarian meal comprising fruit at night. However, because Shravan and Ramzan coincide this year, fruit has become unaffordable for most families,” he says. Pointing to the vicious circle of inflation, Patwa says that roadside vendors are forced to raise prices because of increased domestic expenditure as well as harassment by civic officials. “They organize retail rates to cover the increased cost of living and losses due to confiscation,” he says.
In most quarters, the devout have sacrificed choice at the altar of inflation, forcedly picking cheaper items like banana and watermelon supplemented by fritters.
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