Housing and middle and lower class people

The affordability of middle and lower class people to acquire a house has gone down considerably thanks to persistent high level of general inflation and continuous increase in the cost of land and houses due to speculative buying by those who hold black money and enjoy a salary income more than the average earnings of an average Indian due to boom in IT and favourable taxation policy for higher income group. Multiple holdings of houses have become a fashion and a way of investment by higher income group due to tax incentives and easy availability of loans. This is not applicable to lower middle class and wage earners who constitute a major chunk of the population. For them to have a two square meals a day is itself a luxury. The prices for food cloth, fuel travel, education health etc are so high threatening and frightening the very survival of these people and the question of owning a house does not even come to them even in the wildest of dreams. The Govt may or may not be aware of the ground realities the people at the lower levels of the pyramid face as the data collection and interpretation do not seem to have been reflecting favouring this group. This group deserves a special treatment and earlier the Govt acts the better for the govt and the people.

(This comment appeared in ET dated 3/12/12)

Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan.