Jigyasa Mishra

Author

P. Sainath

Editor

large_01-DSC01451-JM-For whom the budget bells don’t toll.jpg

medium_01-DSC01451-JM-For whom the budget bells don’t toll.jpg

small_01-DSC01451-JM-For whom the budget bells don’t toll.jpg

thumbnail_01-DSC01451-JM-For whom the budget bells don’t toll.jpg

01-DSC01451-JM-For whom the budget bells don’t toll.jpg

<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Sushila’s family of five is seated in the verandah of their tiny home, waiting for her to show up with her ‘salary.’&nbsp; That’s the 5,000 rupees she makes as a domestic helper in two homes. It’s 2 p.m. when Sushila, 45, steps into her house located in the Amara hamlet of Varanasi’s Kashi Vidyapeeth block in Uttar Pradesh.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“Mummy makes 5,000 rupees from cleaning dishes and mopping floors in two houses,” says her 24-year-old son Vinod Kumar Bharati. “She gets it on the first of every month which is today. Papa does wiring, assisting an electrician on the lucky days he finds work. Otherwise there is no source of steady income for us. I work as a labourer. We collectively make 10-12,000 rupees per month. So what does the 12-lakh-rupee tax exemption limit in the budget have to do with us?”<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“We used to work under MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005) till a few years ago. But now they say there’s no work.” Sushila shows us her card which has entries up to 2021, before things switched to digital only. This is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency.

03-DSC01446-JM-For whom the budget bells don’t toll.jpg

<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Sushila’s husband Satru, 50, adds that in the past two years they got barely 30 days of work under the MNREGA scheme. “When we requested the Pradhan for more,” he says, “we were told to go to the block office and ask for it.”<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Sushila shares her house in Amarachak village with the families of two of Satru’s brothers. In all, a joint family of 12 human beings live under this roof.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“I still am waiting for my 35 days’ payment from 2023 when I worked under NREGA,” says Pooja, 42, widow of one of those brothers. “My husband passed away last month, and I have three young sons to look after with no financial help,” she says. “ Shukar hai aaspaas colony me ghar ka kaam mil jata hai [We are blessed that there is a colony where I can get domestic work] ,” she concludes . “Warna sarkar ke bharose to hum do waqt ka khana bhi nahi kha pate [If I had to rely on the state we would not get two square meals a day].”

For whom the budget bells don’t toll

જેમને બજેટ સાથે કોઈ લેવાદેવા નથી

’ٹیکس میں چھوٹ کا ہم سے کیا لینا دینا؟‘

బడ్జెట్‌కూ మాకూ ఏమిటి సంబంధం!

बजट जिनका खातिर बा बेअरथ

‘सरकार के भरोसे त हमन ला दू बखत के खाय के घलो नइ मिलतिस’

ਅਸੀਂ ਕੀ ਜਾਣੀਏ ਬਜਟ ਕੀ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਏ

ಇವರ ಪಾಲಿಗೆ ಬಜೆಟ್‌ ಗಂಟೆ ಮೊಳಗುವುದಿಲ್ಲ

যিসকল লোকৰ বাবে বাজেট অপ্ৰাসংগিক

മണി മുഴങ്ങാത്തതാർക്കുവേണ്ടി

பட்ஜெட்டால் பயனடையாதவர்கள்

‘टैक्स में छूट का हमसे क्या लेना-देना?’

ଯେଉଁମାନଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ବଜେଟ୍‌ ଘଣ୍ଟି ବାଜେ ନାହିଁ

যাদের ভাগ্যে বাজেটের শিকে ছেঁড়ে না 

Varanasi

medium_MOBILE-COVER-IMAGE-JM-For whom the budget bells don’t toll.jpg

small_MOBILE-COVER-IMAGE-JM-For whom the budget bells don’t toll.jpg

thumbnail_MOBILE-COVER-IMAGE-JM-For whom the budget bells don’t toll.jpg

MOBILE-COVER-IMAGE-JM-For whom the budget bells don’t toll.jpg

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

Donate FAQs


Let’s get you acquainted

Welcome to PARI

All our content is, and will forever be free to consume. If you enjoy our work, you can support us by becoming a volunteer or by donating to help fund our work.

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

For whom the budget bells don’t toll

A joint family in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh find the Union Budget and its enhanced tax exemption limit has no relevance for them

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit