Equal Pay for Equal Work

This time of year it is cotton-picking season.  We noticed many people, men and women, out in the fields with their bags picking cotton.  We asked about how that works.  In particular we wanted to know about pay.  We found out that the going rate for cotton picking is 5 Rupees per kg (a kg is approx. 2.2 lbs), but for pepper-picking it is different.  For pepper-picking men receive 400 Rupees per day, women receive 250 Rupees per day.  Equal Pay for Equal Work.

A cotton field with workers picking cotton

To put things in context, it is currently 54 Rupees to the Dollar.  So rounding that to 50, it means men receive $8 dollars a day and women receive $5 dollars a day.  The good news is that beats the UN poverty rate which is considered $2 per day or less.  Of course everything is relative.  So if $2 bought the world in this economy they would be rich, but it does it.  It barely buys anything.

A typical family needs $300 in Hyderabad to survive poorly.  Let's say in the villages this is half of that - this would be $1800 a year.   That means that for a woman, if she, or her children is never ill, and she can find work 7 days a week for 365 days a year, she will break even at $1825 a year.  Of course that does not count the fact that costs are rising, while wages are not.  It also does not count things such as bad weather days, poor crops, or the perpetual issue of not enough work.  So the truth is, on average they probably do not make much more than $2 a day.

Peppers ready for picking

The other "fun" fact that we realized is how this work chews up their bodies.  When we were being asked to pray for people, almost everyone over 50 was asking for prayer for their knees and necks.  Their knees were sometimes bigger than their thighs they were so swollen.

It is no wonder that politics is really of no concern to them.  Their concern is making it through another day with enough food to eat for they and their children, keeping clothes on their back and a roof on their head.