Rich journalist, poor journalist

I used to be maybe unhealthily obsessed with this scene in "A Little Princess."   Sara, who is naturally an orphan (since this is a novel for young girls), goes to bed in a dank little attic room.  While she sleeps, the friendly Indian gentleman who lives across the street instructs his pet monkey to sneak into Sara's room and re-decorate it with sumptuous clothes, draperies and snacks.  When she wakes up, she thinks she's in a dream.

Overnight, Sara has gone from being poor to being upper middle class, maybe even rich.

Thanks to the Asian Development Bank, I can now relate.

I've been agitating for a higher salary for the past several weeks now (I prefer the term 'agitating' because it conjures up images of the Boston Tea Party and the French Revolution, rather than 'harassing' or 'demanding' which conjures up images of a dark room filled with cops or human resources officials)

I want more money because I feel poor.  But according to the Asian Development Bank, I'm actually rich, despite ample anecdotal evidence to the contrary.  According to a new report (TOI story, report highlights) on the rise of Asia's middle class, only 1 million Indians (about .0009% of the population) earn more than Rs. 10,000 per month (about $200 in straight conversion)

The ADB groups India's middle class into three categories: lower middle, middle and upper middle, in total about 25% of the population.  The income range for these people is between Rs. 2k and 10k per month.

Here's a snapshot of how a Delhi family lives on Rs. 10k per month: the man probably works at a low-wage job in an office, or maybe both the man and the woman do domestic work (He as a driver, she as a cook)  They rent a one or two room flat in a crowded neighborhood on the outskirts of Delhi, which they might share with a few members of their extended families.  They don't own an air conditioner, a geyser (which produces hot water) or a Western-style toilet.  Their power and water often cut out due to shortages.  They eat a very basic diet of rice, rotis and lentil soup, with potato as the main vegetable.  Their children most likely attend a government school.  They take buses when they need to commute, since they can't afford autos.  The children get new clothes maybe once a year.  If they're lucky.  I know people who earn about Rs. 9000 a month in Mumbai, which the ADB calls upper middle class, who live in a single room with a single lamp.  Is their existence totally bleak?  No.  But it's not what people might aspire to, either.

The ADB also defines the middle class as: "those who have not inherited wealth, hold regular jobs and enjoy a degree of financial security that allows them to consume and support the maintenance of law and order."  If so, their definition of the Indian middle class is sloppy, because the Indian couple I just profiled easily consumes as much as they make.  They don't earn enough to save or to support the maintenance of law and order.

Here's another telling line from the study: "middle class Indians systematically define themselves as poorer than they actually are in surveys."

Why should this be?  Confession: I would never call myself rich, even though the ADB says I am.  Most of my colleagues wouldn't call themselves rich either, even those who earn up to 1 lakh a month, which is a really high salary for India.  In fact, the only people I know who define themselves as 'rich' are so colosally wealthy that their income would probably boggle the average person anywhere on earth.

Maybe this is the explosion of consumer options combined with Delhi's comparative culture, in which 'rich' means having more than your neighbor.  (This is true everywhere, of course, but especially in Delhi.)  Also, the ADB did calculate Purchasing Power Parity separately for different countries, but in the case of India they should have calculated PPP separately for rural areas, second-tier cities and major urban centres.  The PPP is so different from place to place they might as well be different countries - a poor man in Delhi can still be a big man in his home village.

On a personal note: When I lived in the US, I could afford to buy Levi's Jeans at half price every once in a while, own and drive a car to work, go out for a casual drink with friends once a week and turn on the A/C when it got too hot outside.  Twenty years ago, none of these things were possible in India.  Today they all are, but every one of them is such a spectacular luxury that even people in the top .0009% of the population can't all afford them.  This is why I feel poorer in India than I did in the US, even though salary-wise I'm in a much higher bracket in India than I ever was in the US.