Moving Up in Mumbai
Submitted By: Simeon Trieu
Although India is often seen as the world’s IT and services resource, the fact is that much of India’s population still lives in poverty.
According to a study from Deloitte Research (commented on in the article: China or India?…And Follow Up Questions?), only roughly 7% of India’s population aged 18 to 23 is enrolled in higher education. In addition, 75% of India’s children leave school before finishing 8th grade (Kalish 6-7).
In the article, Mr. Shaikh comments that “once you start looking for money, you stop thinking about education.” While the poverty figures may not decrease, even after India obtains a large share of the world services market, there is still hope for many uneducated people living in poor conditions, at least in Mumbai.
At a retail store, Pantaloon, three men from poor families applied and got jobs to work as retail associates. Some of these men make less than $50 a month to sustain them and their families. Often times, it is not enough, and the families end up hungry. So, why work at Pantaloon? Their wages are roughly $1600 a year plus the prospect of regular raises and promotions, all of this being double the average salary in India. Since the Indian population is largely uneducated, there are plenty of wealth creating opportunities for both foreign investment and local Indian labor. Much of the new wealth resulting from IT and services goes largely to college educated computer programmers, consultants and call-center workers. All this totals up to a whopping 0.2% of India’s 1.1 billion population, which leaves the rest with the same conditions before all this began… or does it?
What does the new wealth given to India’s college educated change in India? It creates a middle class with needs for consumption. This is exactly what provides the poor city dwellers in their 20s and 30s with: jobs to service the middle class. In other words, India’s growth is being led by a sharp rise in domestic consumption. It is predicted by the Images Group, a research and consulting group in India, that the retail sector alone will create 2.5 million new jobs within the country. This is good news to the poor living there! Although, this mostly affects the city areas that are more metropolitan, where brand name goods and services will attract the new free-spending consumers.
In addition to providing opportunities for new wealth for the impoverished people, it also offers them a chance to learn new skills such as developing rapport, confidence, fashion-sense and even better hygiene. Through talking to people much richer than themselves, especially with the hierarchical levels of respect built into Indian society, the associates learn better communication skills while developing confidence in themselves.
And lastly, one reason this particular article touched me was that it offered the people hope, something they are in short supply on. Mr. Gundeti’s father is very cautious about what to expect in life. “Every time we have a little hope, something bad happens.” But with these new positions teaching their children how to properly communicate and work a steady job, they can improve both personally, as well as financially. One particular sales associate even said, “I try to teach my friends to end their vulgar language and behavior. They don’t change, so I don’t spend time with them anymore.” The workplace develops into a community of sales associates that spend time with each other, even outside of work. The jobs given to the poor have an even greater effect than just the money: they find hope and confidence in their futures. It’s very easy to look at this issue analytically and forget that we’re dealing with people. As an MBA student, it is my dream to have this kind of lasting, uplifting effect on people in any business I do. While the jobs are very humble and often derided by many Americans, those same humble jobs are producing the positive changes that India desperately needs.
12 comments January 9th, 2008