This is the first year Reyazuddin ever heard of the Union Budget and took interest in it too, all due to what he had heard about achche din . A semi-literate Muslim youth, he was on Thursday curious about the promise of “good days” made by the Narendra Modi government and wanted to know if there was something for him in the Budget.
After sitting for over two hours in front of his second hand Onida television set in a cramped room in Nizamuddin Basti, he could not help but switch off the TV set because he could not find “even a single thing” for himself in it.
Ironically, there was no “good news” for Reyazuddin who delivers news papers in Nizamuddin.
“What will I do with a cheaper LED TV or mobile phone? Quite frankly, I cannot afford these things. I just wanted to know if this government has anything to offer us,” he said.
He felt quite strongly about the fact that the entire combined salary of his wife and his own goes into buying grocery for the household. “The skyrocketing price of essential commodities is killing us,” he rued.
Reyazuddin, works on two jobs in shifts as he struggles to run his family of three. His wife Zubaida does household work in the adjacent affluent locality of Nizamuddin West and chips in with Rs. 3,000 per month.
In the morning he works for a newspaper hawker and in the afternoon he delivers food across different parts of the city on his second hand scooter.
Zubaida wanted to know if the budget promises efficient public health which will free her family from exploitation by the local quacks.
Anxious about how they could finance the education of their daughter Alina in the near future, she was also disappointed as she did not hear anything on facilitating an education system for poor which is on par with the private schools. Of their combined earning of Rs. 9000, the family spends Rs. 2,000 in sending Alina to a “good” play school.
“We do not have the tax paying capacity, neither can we take home loan. We struggle to survive and are anxious to know if there is any help from the government that would put our lives on track,” said Reyazuddin.
The family has been hit hard by rising prices of all essential commodities, including fuel, vegetables and milk and milk products.
The couple terms the inflation a “tragedy” and on not finding any succour in the Budget said in an exasperated tone: “It is just another day for us. The wait for acche din just got endless.”
