Haircuts are often used in intro econ courses to explain the Balassa-Samuelson effect and to justify the use of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) estimates of developing country incomes in lieu of the actual exchange rate. Basically, developing country wages are depressed due to relatively low productivity in tradable sectors despite near-equivalent productivity in non-tradable sectors. To me, this means that I got a Rs 20 haircut today (my first in a foreign country!), even though I pay 46 times this in the US (ie $20). The purpose of my haircut was to keep cool since I am starting a running regimen, and so it gave me an opportunity to think about the relative prices people pay here to exercise.
Virginia looked into purchasing dumbbells for use in the apartment from Vishal Mart (Vishal means "Wal-" in Hindi). They were Rs 1200 for a pair of 10-pounders, or about the same you would pay for dumbbells in the US, reflecting the fact that dumbbells are tradable (sort of, though expensive to ship and not the item I would choose to smuggle out of India to make profit out of arbitrage). So I could either get one pair of dumbbells, which I would probably use for paper-weights (survey-weights) after a few hours of returning from the store, or I could get 60 haircuts.
In the previous post, VA mentioned a visit to the neighborhood gym, Addiction Fitness. It consisted of one room with one treadmill, one elliptical (without built-in cable TV, unlike the ones in everybody's favorite Cambridge workout spot), and a few machines. The patrons and the manager who gave us a "tour" around were men who looked like they had grown bored of benching water buffalos in their villages. Cost: Rs 5000 for three months, or an average of 2.78 haircuts per day. Thanks but no thanks, Mr. Schwarze-kumar.
Last night, the J-Team (oops, I mean J-PAL Team) went to check out Bankipur Club on the river up by Gandhi Maidan. It was a beautiful British-Raj complex, which means that the club has a rich history of oppression and exclusion, quite visible even today: the road approaching the club is lined with squatters in makeshift huts, probably accommodating some of the club's service staff, which contrasts sharply with the landscaped courtyards on the other side of the guards and gatehouse. I lost count of the posters at the entrance that announced the club's strict policy of "No Local Guests." We sat at a nice table on the lawn next to the Ganges, and since it is monsoon season the river came right up to its protective wall. There were as many waiters serving us as there were people in our party. After our meal, we explored the fitness facilities and found a huge pool overlooking the river. My friend commented that membership to the club would cost about Rs 50,000 per year. Or haircuts for all of Swarthmore and Haverford.
Cost is one reason that structured exercise is less common in India. Relatedly, the lack of leisure time (except for in government offices….) prevents people from establishing a workout regimen. Conserving calories is also important for a large part of the population; even though India has not had a famine since Independence (they are proud of this), hunger remains a big problem, with 46% of children undernourished.
But India is a rapidly developing country, which means that there is a ballooning middle- and upper-middle-class that can shoulder the cost of fitness, has the leisure time, and certainly has enough calories to spare (India has more diabetics than any other country). For this income bracket, culture is the primary impediment to an exercise regimen. I am referring specifically to Bihar; in Delhi and Mumbai, it is probably far more common to see Western-style gyms and joggers on the streets in the morning. But in Patna the fad has not caught on, despite some feeble attempts by the newspapers to link health with youthfulness, coolness, and unfortunately, shallowness. And so I remain an enigma to the streets of Patna. An enigma that has to be stared at unabashedly and wide-mouthed by all passersby lest I disappear when they take their eyes off me. This is one aspect of this country that I will not miss.
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