Rising prices of essential commodities, including domestic cooking gas, breached the Rs 1,000 mark earlier this month, crippling family budgets, turning life into a living hell for women drawn from the lower middle class. is a series. ,
Sensing an opportunity, all would have returned to the stove in view of the rapidly increasing cooking gas and would be sad to see how even basic households no longer have provision for it.
“The central government seems to have little sympathy for the poor, or else why would they put us in further misery by making cooking gas so expensive and ineffective, when we were already suffering from job losses and fall in income due to the pandemic . Already living a minimal life, we cannot offer much to tilt the family budget skewed,” said 54-year-old Pramila Vikraman, a social worker and a member of the district committee of Karshaka Thozhilali union.
Jancy Joshi, 47, a maid from Koithara Colony in the city, is working hard to pay off her ₹6 lakh bank loan taken to support her family and build a small house. “One can live with a low income provided there are no other liabilities. But the poor also face liabilities to acquire their meager wealth or to marry a daughter. Hence, when the cost of living rises and If there is no increase in income, many families are pushed to the brink of suicide.This is why people like us participate in protests against unfair policies of the government even at the cost of our meager daily wages.
Women engaged in daily wages cannot afford the demand for a wage increase, as they run the risk of losing that poorly paid job. Thus families are giving up on ‘luxuries’ like meat and fish to even work on their food menus and giving up their little pleasures like buying a new outfit, Ms Joshi said.
Returning from a protest against rising cooking gas prices, 72-year-old former public representative of Kadamakkudi panchayat, Mary Agnes, said that doubling of family budget is forcing families to halve consumption and other necessities. “Kerosene is no longer available and resorting to electric-based cooking appliances incurs huge electricity bills, leaving us between a rock and a hard place. With disposable income stagnant and expenditure rising all the time, women are left with an impossible task of managing the family budget,” she said.
Usha Lenin, 43, a maid from Chilavannur, said that with no other option, her family has cut bare consumption and even monthly provisions to meet both needs. “Women from poor households are the worst affected, and nobody cares,” she lamented.
For Sindhu Joseph, a 42-year-old ASHA worker from Panampilly Nagar in the city, it is a struggle every day to take care of her ailing husband and run the family. “Paying more than ₹1,000 out of my meager income for a single LPG cylinder is too much,” he lamented.