Page 66 - Tehelka-May18

column

Sole breadwinners end up

as losers, almost always!

The LasT came to know about his death in Doha 1993-94 to 41 per cent in 2011-12. In urban
via social media. We had last commu-
areas, the number of sole breadwinners
Word I rose from 53 per cent in 1993-94 to 55 per
nicated just few days ago before a heart
cent in 2011-12. The current statistics, more
attack took him away from us. Anil
Abdul WAsey Kumar Vijayan, a senior journalist, was or less, remains the same. The unemploy-
my colleague in many newspapers when I ment rate in the country, for example, has
was working in the Gulf. I was upset about doubled between July 2017 and April 2018.
his loss. More than that, I was concerned Had Anil been alive and returned to In-
about his family — his wife and two college- dia, as he was planning to, he would have
going children — who live in a rented house anyway struggled hard to find a suitable job
in Mumbai. Now how will they survive? to feed his family here. After all, beside a few
Like me and million others across the big ones, most media houses work on the
world, Anil was the sole breadwinner for lines of unorganised sector, offering no job
his family. The problems faced by single-in- stability or financial security to their em-
come households are not hard to imagine. ployees. Same is the case with majority of
Each month, there is a queue of financial
obligations like paying all sorts of utility
bills, buying the family’s daily needs, fulfill- Saving is the last
ing major payouts like mortgage and chil-
dren’s school fees. These, obviously, do not word that comes to
include shelling out huge amount of money
on sudden and unplanned expenses such the mind when a
as illnesses and accidents. Saving is the person struggles to
last word that comes to the mind when a
person struggles to meet day-to-day needs meet day-to-day
with only one source of income. needs with only one
In case of job loss or any mis-happening
to the sole breadwinner, the family gener- source of income
ally has nothing to rely upon. In most of
the cases, the dependents suddenly fall
from the lower middle-class bracket to the firms in the so-called organised sector.
the below-poverty line. Sadly, the number I finally checked with Anil’s wife how she
of such families is increasing for past few will be managing things — particularly kids’
years. Around 60 per cent of households in studies — after the demise of her husband.
India, as per the latest ‘Household Survey on She said her brothers, who are settled in
India’s Citizen Environment & Consumer the US, have offered to bear their financial
Economy’, have only one earning member. expenses. Good for her. But not everyone
The Fifth Annual Employment-Unemploy- in India is lucky enough. The government
ment Survey by the Ministry of Labour and needs to focus more on improving the con-
Employment separately hinted that 77 per dition of sole breadwinners and their fami-
cent households do not have even a single lies. Generating more employment can be
regular wage/regular salaried person. the first step in the right direction. Finding
A comparison of successive surveys of ways to offer stable and secure jobs to the
employment done by the National Sam- kin of sole breadwinners after their death
ple Survey Organisation suggests out that should also be a priority.
single-income households in rural areas of
the country increased from 31 per cent in letters@tehelka.com

Tehelka / 31 may 2018 66 www.Tehelka.com

66 The Last Word-Abdul-Column.indd 2 17/05/18 4:05 PM