Bus "Job"

Previously, I have discussed how ridiculous it is sometimes at the number of workers there are in India performing very simple tasks. Don't get me wrong here-I'm certainly on board with their government encouraging businesses to gainfully employ as many people as possible, especially given the unheard of amount of citizens that live off of $2/day or less (see further discussion below on this eye-opening topic). But sometimes, it is just out of control.

On the drive to the office last month, I noticed one particular highly skilled position (sarcasm clearly emphasized by italics) that surprised me, which is tougher and tougher each day after living in the country for 3+ months. I'm not sure of the actual title for this 'job', so we'll just call it the Assistant to the Bus Driver.

From what I could gather, the Assistant to the Bus Driver's sole responsibility was to use hand signals to indicate when the bus was turning. So why did this surprise me? For starters, it is important to note that in most cases, NONE of the other drivers on the road care to indicate a turn by using a signal. So why buses? Granted, due to the size of the buses, it certainly is a good idea to give a 'heads up' to the other commuters on two-wheelers, bikes, carriages pulled by cows/camels, etc. But is it really necessary to crowd the buses even more with another worker simply to stick his hand out of the window that, under most circumstances, no one will even see or pay attention to anyway? Further, what is preventing the actual bus driver from giving the signal himself?

Ok, back to the commentary I started above with respect to poverty in India. Claims were made in a recent Congress party election that two-thirds of India's 1.2 Billion population live off of less than $2/day. That's approximately $800 million people, or 3 times the population of the United States! What's even more mind-boggling is that according to the Indian government's own definition of poverty (based on a standard developed by the World Bank), all of these people that live off of less than $2/day don't even qualify as being in poverty. Rather, the national poverty threshold is set at something less than $1/day and applies to an estimated 27% of the population, or approximately $325 million people, still exceeding the entire population of the United States.

This begs the question, "How far does two bucks take you in India?" In this article, the writer discusses India's "basket of goods" approach, which is similar to what is used to define poverty in the United States. Under this method, the cost of a minimally adequate diet is multiplied by a set amount to account for the cost of food and other essentials. The United States using a multiplier of three because the average American family spends one-third of its post-tax income on food, while the European Union utilizes a relative income approach which sets the poverty line below a percentage of median income.

However, the U.S. method does not work on a global scale due to the fact that the "basket of goods" often varies greatly from country to country based on local dietary habits. Further, the EU's approach would actually understate the poverty level in poor countries due to the fact that a majority percentage of median income would still yield a significant portion of the population above the poverty line. Thus, the World Bank developed its own method.

Under the World Bank's method, there are two benchmarks for poverty. "Extreme poverty" is defined as less than $1/day while $2/day is defined as "near poverty" in developing countries. The $2/day threshold is "all-out" poverty in other places. In India, though, even this method does not provide an accurate measure of poverty in the country due to the vast cost-of-living differences between those that live in rural areas as compared to those that live and work in cities, hence the reason the Indian government developed their own definition. Instead, those that live in rural areas have a threshold of $0.66/day to be considered below the poverty line, while city dwellers' threshold is $0.83/day. Moreover, India also takes into consideration and adjusts the status for those in the population who are cash poor, but enjoy the benefit(s) of other assets such as houses and/or land.

After reading that, what are your thoughts now on how critical that dowry is/could be to a family in India?