Comparing Indian business

[l.m.fosse at easteur-orient.uio.no]

Anthony Good wrote:

>I can certainly confirm Joydeep Mitra's comments from personal field
>experience.  A relatively well-paid manual labourer in a small South India
>town
>in the mid-80s might get Rs30-40 per day.  They would have to work 290 days
>per
>annum at Rs 40 to earn $360.  Clerical workers might be even worse off; temple
>staff earned around Rs300 per month (admittedly with some meals as an extra).
>Surely there is no controversy whatever over this kind of figure, and I cannot
>understand why Lance Cousins finds them hard to believe.

This tallies quite nicely with information I received in 1985, when a
riksha-wallah in Agra told me they made about 30-40 rupees a day. A driver
told me he earned 400 Rs a month. The interesting question is, however: How
much do 40 rupees buy - locally?  Does anybody have an idea about how this
translates into food, heating, shelter etc.?

Best regards,

Lars Martin Fosse



Lars Martin Fosse
Research Fellow
Department of East European
and Oriental Studies
P. O. Box 1030, Blindern
N-0315 OSLO Norway

Tel: +47 22 85 68 48
Fax: +47 22 85 41 40

E-mail: l.m.fosse at easteur-orient.uio.no


 


> From ANDREWC at cc1.uca.edu 26 95 Aug CST6CDT 14:52:34
Date:         26 Aug 95 14:52:34 CST6CDT
From: Andrew Cohen <ANDREWC at cc1.uca.edu>
Subject:      brit mus

Does anyone know if the British Museum, specifically the South Asia
dept., has an e-mail address?  or their fax number?
Thanks
Andrew Cohen