What is the worth of human life in India?

By Philip Mudartha, Doha-Qatar

Doha, 07 July 2010: When there is an accidental death on a public transport system or at a public place, the government authorities and the carrier companies in association with their insurers announce relief and interim compensation to the relatives. The amount disbursed varies. The air crash victims were compensated better than their unfortunate cousins involved in deaths on tracks. But, in average the figures are at least ten lakh rupees.

Our human emotions are aroused, when such ’pittance’ is paid out. There is no value for human life in India, we bemoan. The litany of our woes goes like this: The government does not value us. Because, we are more than a billion people. The politicians only need our votes.

I am an Indian. What am I ’worth’? if I am considered as a productive asset, what income do I generate?

The CIA Fact book, which is often more accurate than our own statistics, puts our annual GDP at a little below a thousand dollars. This means that an Indian produces and consumes an average of rupees Forty-five thousand in a year.

At the prime savings rate of six percent, this income is derived from an investment of Rupees about Eight Lakh. That is my worth. I am not an economist or financial wizard. Our domestic consumption is about 80% of our production, so I can safely conclude that an Indian is producing on average not more than  Rupees Thirty Thousand worth of goods and services.

The government dips into its treasury to compensate. The treasury is empty and is in deep debt. In fact, the treasury spends two rupees for every rupee it earns. It borrows the other rupee from our future generations. It prints paper money, it issues IOU (debt instruments, bonds and other commercial paper) and promises to pay the debt to its own people in the future at a fixed interest rate!

The treasury of a nation comes from its people. It comes by taxes and incomes its people generate from foreign trade. It can also get it from begging, stealing and borrowing from other countries. But is that how we would like to finance ourselves? Hardly. We are a proud and honorable people.

We are worth what we create. We must create greater wealth if we must earn greater value to our lives. There is no two ways about it. Think about it.