in the past 2-3 days i have come across incidents which inspired this blog.
i'll particularly talk about the inequality in income distribution in india. of course there exists inequality in every part of the world but im jus puttin down what i saw.
i travel pune-mumbai every weekend. sometimes we come in Utkarsha's car, sometimes by volvo / train. this weekend we took the train and on our way back utkarsha bought some magnetic toy for his daughter. small kid arnd 10-12 years old was selling those items. out of curiousity utkarsha asked him that how much do you make by selling this. that fellow also innocently told us that he makes around 2-3 rs per piece and sales are around 15-20 pieces a day which comes to like 50-60 rs per day. and im sure there must be someone on top of him who might be eating the major share of profits (whatever that was). now thats really a meagre amount of daily earnings whereas everytime i come to mumbai my weekend expense (travel + entertainment) cross the weekly income of that fellow. i know its not a good comparison but the gap is just tooo high. i have seen ppl earning around 50k p.m. (well thats not my monthly income in case if you were thinking ;) .... just fairly common range for people around me with 3-4 yrs experience). utkarsha n i were just discussing how these people might be earning their living.
yesterday we had been to aamantraan (one of the good restraunts in mulund). we had gone there for wining n dining no occasion as such. actually my friend got his wife alongwith him so we had to choose a good quality family bar n rest. while we were having dinner some 10-12 kids walked in. all around 15-16 yrs old. each one had cell in hand alongwith some other flashy stuff. each one thought themselves as richie rich (lol i miss watching all the toons this wasnt my fav but used to watch it) it was someones b'day treat. we started discussin how we used to celebrate our bdays (if at al ;)). after the dinner we went to naturals (famous icecream parlour) and had icecream. swapnil called and he wanted to go to some dhaba (food joint especially for travellers / truck drivers etc.) we all went there ... me, RC, magrya and swapnil. i, RC and magrya were full, so we din have anythin much but swapnil ordered his food. these dhabas are very cheap but they make some of the tasty dishes. although i have never tried one as i hardly enjoy non-veg and i dont like unhygenic places (at least not anymore .... with an exception for pani puri places ;) ). we were having a gala time as we had met after long time. n while we were enjoying we just had a look around and it was majorly occupied with truck drivers n other ppl. again we touched upon the subject "how much these ppl must be earning on a daily basis" and especially considering the labour involved, long journeys that was hardly anything. but thats how it goes here. labour is dirt cheap here in india.
so the question arises is the difference in income distribution justified ? i understand that we are all educated people n we have earned our degrees n we do not fall into the labour category bla bla bla. but still from Rs 50k p.m. (again wasn't me ;) ) to Rs 1500 p.m. how can one justify that ? in fact at times i've felt that getting an education is also luxury for some people. we had a guy in our class who had to drop out after 12th due to family reasons and beilive me or not he was more talented than i was. but he had to take the correspondence route (for basic graduation) so that he could earn while he earns his degree.
we must admit that income inequality exists in every part of the world and prefectly equal distribution (if we can ever achieve it) would again be an injustice to life (thatswot i feel) but again the question arises "how much inequality is fair enuf?"
al that being said i wud say that these ppl are still far better off. recently i came across an NGO called wateraid(click here) which provides clean water to those who dont have an access to pure drinking water. these include africa and other parts of the world, some parts of india as well. this organization is dedicated to solving ppl's drinking water problems. clean drinking water is everyone's right but unfortunately its a luxury for some of them. its hard to beilieve but very true.
today i came across A R Rehman's new track "Pray for me Brother". he has shown his talent once again and came up with this album all by his own. this album supports a very nobel cause. He is a passionate supporter of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's), which is a set of promises to end poverty around the globe, hunger and disease by 2015. Hope we all can contribute something towards it.
originally i had thought of "income inequality ... how much is fair enough?" as the title for this blog entry but the rehman's title perfectly fits there :) hope he wudn have any copyright issues else i'd have 2 say pray 4 me bro ;)
now to conclude:
well most of you will criticise that its easy to feel bad but what have you done about this?
i'd say that if you experience this 10 times, probably 11th time it'd result into some action. and then i'd still refrain from donating to beggars across the road as there the genuineness of the whole situation is questionnable. so better donate to NGOs if you ever feel like.
and i'd also not say that one should feel contended with what he/she has. that will stop you from growing. but rather try to share some % (however small that may be) of your growth with the society and you will make the whole society grow and then its only human to urge for more.
- signin off
ameyas7
i'll particularly talk about the inequality in income distribution in india. of course there exists inequality in every part of the world but im jus puttin down what i saw.
i travel pune-mumbai every weekend. sometimes we come in Utkarsha's car, sometimes by volvo / train. this weekend we took the train and on our way back utkarsha bought some magnetic toy for his daughter. small kid arnd 10-12 years old was selling those items. out of curiousity utkarsha asked him that how much do you make by selling this. that fellow also innocently told us that he makes around 2-3 rs per piece and sales are around 15-20 pieces a day which comes to like 50-60 rs per day. and im sure there must be someone on top of him who might be eating the major share of profits (whatever that was). now thats really a meagre amount of daily earnings whereas everytime i come to mumbai my weekend expense (travel + entertainment) cross the weekly income of that fellow. i know its not a good comparison but the gap is just tooo high. i have seen ppl earning around 50k p.m. (well thats not my monthly income in case if you were thinking ;) .... just fairly common range for people around me with 3-4 yrs experience). utkarsha n i were just discussing how these people might be earning their living.
yesterday we had been to aamantraan (one of the good restraunts in mulund). we had gone there for wining n dining no occasion as such. actually my friend got his wife alongwith him so we had to choose a good quality family bar n rest. while we were having dinner some 10-12 kids walked in. all around 15-16 yrs old. each one had cell in hand alongwith some other flashy stuff. each one thought themselves as richie rich (lol i miss watching all the toons this wasnt my fav but used to watch it) it was someones b'day treat. we started discussin how we used to celebrate our bdays (if at al ;)). after the dinner we went to naturals (famous icecream parlour) and had icecream. swapnil called and he wanted to go to some dhaba (food joint especially for travellers / truck drivers etc.) we all went there ... me, RC, magrya and swapnil. i, RC and magrya were full, so we din have anythin much but swapnil ordered his food. these dhabas are very cheap but they make some of the tasty dishes. although i have never tried one as i hardly enjoy non-veg and i dont like unhygenic places (at least not anymore .... with an exception for pani puri places ;) ). we were having a gala time as we had met after long time. n while we were enjoying we just had a look around and it was majorly occupied with truck drivers n other ppl. again we touched upon the subject "how much these ppl must be earning on a daily basis" and especially considering the labour involved, long journeys that was hardly anything. but thats how it goes here. labour is dirt cheap here in india.
so the question arises is the difference in income distribution justified ? i understand that we are all educated people n we have earned our degrees n we do not fall into the labour category bla bla bla. but still from Rs 50k p.m. (again wasn't me ;) ) to Rs 1500 p.m. how can one justify that ? in fact at times i've felt that getting an education is also luxury for some people. we had a guy in our class who had to drop out after 12th due to family reasons and beilive me or not he was more talented than i was. but he had to take the correspondence route (for basic graduation) so that he could earn while he earns his degree.
we must admit that income inequality exists in every part of the world and prefectly equal distribution (if we can ever achieve it) would again be an injustice to life (thatswot i feel) but again the question arises "how much inequality is fair enuf?"
al that being said i wud say that these ppl are still far better off. recently i came across an NGO called wateraid(click here) which provides clean water to those who dont have an access to pure drinking water. these include africa and other parts of the world, some parts of india as well. this organization is dedicated to solving ppl's drinking water problems. clean drinking water is everyone's right but unfortunately its a luxury for some of them. its hard to beilieve but very true.
today i came across A R Rehman's new track "Pray for me Brother". he has shown his talent once again and came up with this album all by his own. this album supports a very nobel cause. He is a passionate supporter of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's), which is a set of promises to end poverty around the globe, hunger and disease by 2015. Hope we all can contribute something towards it.
originally i had thought of "income inequality ... how much is fair enough?" as the title for this blog entry but the rehman's title perfectly fits there :) hope he wudn have any copyright issues else i'd have 2 say pray 4 me bro ;)
now to conclude:
well most of you will criticise that its easy to feel bad but what have you done about this?
i'd say that if you experience this 10 times, probably 11th time it'd result into some action. and then i'd still refrain from donating to beggars across the road as there the genuineness of the whole situation is questionnable. so better donate to NGOs if you ever feel like.
and i'd also not say that one should feel contended with what he/she has. that will stop you from growing. but rather try to share some % (however small that may be) of your growth with the society and you will make the whole society grow and then its only human to urge for more.
- signin off
ameyas7
Me - LinkedIn, R u? 
No comments:
Post a Comment