How can you be called rich if you don't even own a fridge?

A survey of 61,000 households, of which 36,000 were urban, carried out by a private organisation, headed by Rama Bijapurkar and Rajesh Shukla, showed how poor India still is 69 years after independence. Naturally, there is a very big difference in consumption patterns between the top 20% and the bottom 20%. But what of the middle 60% of households, that the survey calls Middle India? To their surprise they found that Middle India is not middle class. Middle class is classified as those with an income of $10-$20 per day. Pew Research found that only 3% of people in the world are in that bracket. "An overwhelming majority of the richest Indians consider themselves to be middle class and actually a third of those actually in the middle of India's income distribution pyramid consider themselves to be poor," the survey found. It is no surprise that only 6% of the middle 60% own cars, 31% of the rich 20% and 11% of the all Indian households own cars, compared to one car for every 1.3 people in the US, which means over 70% people. "Seventy-two per cent of breadwinners in Middle India are either unlettered or have received only primary schooling. Most of them are either self-employed or labourers, and very few (17%) have regular salaried jobs," they write. About 35% of the rich have salaried jobs which shows how high salaries are in India, probably as a result of continuously high retail inflation. The shocking thing is that only about 25% of Middle India, comprising 60% of households own a refrigerator, which should be absolutely essential in a hot country. Only 60% of the top 20% of households own refrigerators. About 65% of Middle India and 100% of the rich own televisions. Less than 10% of Middle India own a washing machine, which has revolutionised the lives of women and increased prosperity in western countries, by allowing many more women to work. Another shocking fact is that nearly 60% of breadwinners are either illiterate or have studied up to primary school. Which means that the vast majority of people cannot be retrained for a digital future. Not surprising that only 23% of households have some form of health insurance. 3% of households in the top 20% faced a health shock this year which wiped out more than 20% of their wealth. The figure for the bottom 20% was more than double at 6.8%. Figures do not reveal the nature of health shock. For the rich it could have been cancer which costs tens of millions of rupees but for a poor person it could be a simple dog bite which would cost a couple of thousand in doctor's fees and anti-rabies injections. Only politicians and civil servants are rich in India, with high salaries and every expense paid by the government. The rest of us are poor.