Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

People groan as prices hit the roof

- Photo: H. Satish

Tightening belt: Hike in the prices of vegetables has made Buchchamma to sacrifice a few a few small luxuries.

HYDERABAD: Tamarind soup with a dash of dal replaces the traditional sambar, egg appears to be more affordable than tomato, and milk is what one gets in the brick coloured liquid sold in the name of tea. Visits to cinema halls dwindle and people suddenly begin to appraise shopping bills with a critical view. With the prices of essential commodities hitting the roof, the opportunity cost of survival in the city is under scrutiny as never before. Any mention of rising prices will yield disapproving nods and sighs from all sections of people.

“We have reduced the consumption of vegetables altogether. Tomato is selling at Rs.8 for quarter a kilogram on carts. And quarter a kilogram was the usual quantity we would buy earlier. Now we have reduced it by half. We are buying only “ardhapavu’ (half a quarter kilo),” says Buchchamma, a cook at Ashok Nagar. Her income of Rs.1,600 a month and what her husband earns as a wholesaler in betel leaves should see them through a whole month and hence, she cannot afford to spend huge amounts on vegetables alone.

Having to stretch meagre means along the expanding scale of prices, most people belonging to the lower income groups in the city have ceased paying attention to what they are eating. For them the purpose of eating is survival, and not being in good health.

“Earlier, we used to buy milk at least for tea. Now we can’t afford the luxury and have shifted to sipping decoction,” says Majeed, a hamali near the Saibaba Temple at Dislukhnagar who shifted to the city about 10 years ago. He says he finds work only for three days a week and what he earns has to be stretched to the remaining days too. Bhikshapathi, his comrade from Khammam, nods and pitches in to say that they stopped eating fruits altogether. Even bananas, the cheapest of fruits, are costing Rs.25 a dozen.

“Vegetable vendors have stopped visiting the basthis altogether as they know that people there do not promise good sales. Times have never been so bad,” sighs Nageshwar Rao, a petty vendor in Jawahar Nagar. Protein food is luxury. Most of the wage labourers have stopped eating meat and shifted to eggs instead. Movies have begun to appear a costly affair. Even a mega star movie would be capable of extracting only a few regretful grunts from them. “Gone are the days when we watched two movies every week. Now it has come to be such a costly affair that with the amount spent on a film, one can buy vegetables for a whole month,” says Buchchamma with calculative brain.

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