
How well can you live in India on $2 per day? - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.slate.com/id/2218586/
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kiwidrew
The article didn't actually say very much at all about how well (or not well)
you could live in India on $2 per day. I somehow feel even less enlightened
than before.

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sounddust
My thoughts exactly. It would have been interesting to hear the details of how
someone in India would spend the $2 during the course of a day (or $14 during
a week);

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jyothi
For a rural setting or tier-2 city in India I wouldn't be surprised - ppl get
paid less than that. Even in an urban setting it is definitely feasible to
lead a respectable life - no need to beg/ borrow.

$2 a day or $60 a month for a working individual is comfort life, for a family
one needs more.

Rent: Urban - $20 + $5-8 (other expenses). In a rural setting $20 would be
fairly comfortable housing.

Food: (rice/wheat bread(roti) + vegetables/dal) - this is considerably 'good'
food, 1 person would need ~6 kilo of rice + 2-3 kilo of dal + misc items,
cheaper options: $6-7 + cooking gas etc $2

Urban setting would mean travel and other expenses of $10-$15.

So effective a urban individual would hardly have $5 as saving. In a rural
setting one can save upto $20.

People buy clothes or other items occasionally. Twice in a year is considered
fairly lucky. And you can buy clothing for as less as $1-$2 these days.

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erlanger
So if I took $5000 to India, how long would that last me (assuming it weren't
stolen or lost)?

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plinkplonk
"if I took $5000 to India, how long would that last me (assuming it weren't
stolen or lost)?"

In Bangalore it would last you about 2-4 months depending on how exactly you
live. (I assume you want a decent pad, internet connectivity, cellphone, eat
out occasionally and so on) In cheaper places you could get by for 6 - 8
months. If you want to just "subsist" (eat well + roof over your head and you
don't care where you live in India) you could go a year or even two.

(PS a lot of people live on less, but then a lot of people own their own
hoouses or are really poor and malnourished etc)

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aagnihot
In Pune/Hyderabad/Bangalore, 1.Rent (a descent house in good neighbourhood) :
$2400/per year 2\. If you cook your food and avoid restaurants, food expenses
will be around $720/per person 3\. Electricity bills: $240/per annum 4\.
Unlimited broadband(3G - usb): $240/per annum 5\. Petrol (Gas)- Assuming you
travel 13-km per day : $360/per annum

Total expenses: $3960/per annum

As the matter of fact, entry level salary for software engineer in an ordinary
company is $5000 per annum. Moreover, if you share your apartment, you can
still reduce your expenses, and in fact save lot of money.

~~~
plinkplonk
"Total expenses: $3960/per annum"

This is simply not true _in Bangalore_ (I don't know about Hyderbad/ pune).
(I've been living "decently" in Bangalore for the last 15 years). But hey if
you can manage it, good for you.

"entry level salary for software engineer in an ordinary company is $5000 per
annum."

people being hired out of college campuses (in other words n their first job)
$10,000 - $12500 these days - and that too for the generic body shopping
companies.

Government jobs (often with free housing and other perks) get you 5000 $/annum
as a starting rate. Software jobs pay _considerably_ more. If you are getting
5000$/ year for programming, you are _significantly_ underpaid.

For anyone planning to come to Bangalore with 5k$, be warned, you will be
scraping by. So, unless you plan to live very (VERY) cheap , iow "roughing it"
, plan on about 10,000 $/ year for Bangalore. Bangalore is arguably the most
expensive place to live in India (Some parts of Bombay are costlier).

I have had many expat friends stay in Bangalore for long periods. I just
chatted with a couple of them as I was writing this post and they agree that
10k is enough for a decent (not great) year in Bangalore fr a year.

My advice, talk to someone who's relocated here from the USA and stayed a year
or more and let them fill you in (vs getting dubious advice from a forum, even
HN).

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niyazpk
Instead of answering the question directly, I will tell you how much you nee
per month to live here in India as a start up founder.

In most of the major cities you can find decent accomodation for below $60 per
month. Food will cost around $150 (You will get very good food with this
amount). Electricity + unlimited broadband will cost you 24$ per month.

So you can live in any major city for around $250 per month.

If you are ready to share accomodation, internet etc and cut the costs here
and there, you may be able to save more.

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ajju
You can survive comfortably but not entertain yourself. Movie tickets, for
example, cost at least $1 in most cities. So does eating out at a decent
restaurant (by local standards).

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SingAlong
ah!

I'm a bit surprised that the Indian govt's above-poverty level is set at
somewhere around $1 (~Rs.48). Its too low to live with basic needs.

Out of curiosity I just dug up the official docs on the Labor ministry website
of India, and found this <http://labour.nic.in/wagecell/welcome.html>

That page contains a PDF file with a table somewhere in the middle that
mentions minimum wages for different kinds of work. It's highest for people
employed in the field of Agriculture. Their minimum wages is specified as
Rs.107 (~$2.3). Most fields of work have close to $1(Rs.66) as mentioned in
the article.

But daily wage construction workers around me get paid around Rs.250 a day
(~$6)

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csomar
it depends on the place where you live, you can rent a house here (with three
rooms) with only $180 a month, but in sousse (another town, same country) it's
more than $2500. it's the same in any place on the world.

