The current retail price of potato has shot up 300 per cent to Rs. 18-20 per kg from the last year's high at Rs. 6 a kilo in most Indian markets. Potato is the commonest of the common range of agri-products that makes the most important, if not only, vegetable dish for the poor to go with rice or chapati. The prices of green chilli in most markets are hovering around Rs. 100-120 per kg. The presence of pulses, the average retail price of which is now ruling at around Rs. 75 per kg, has become almost a luxury in the poor man's kitchen. The price of a kilogram of whole wheat atta is hovering at Rs. 23, nearly 80 per cent more than its price in 2008. Suji is Rs. 40 per kilo. The prices of tea, biscuits and besan are shooting up by almost every week. Plantains, normally the cheapest and most widely consumed common man's fruit, cost Rs. 4 a piece or Rs. 40-45 a dozen compared to the last year's level of Rs. 20-24 per dozen.

The retail prices of agricultural products are, at this point of time, at their all-time high levels. Fish and meat of all varieties are no longer within the reach of the poor and the low-income group consumers. Worse-still, these prices are further shooting up as their arrivals are shrinking in retail markets across the country. The month-long drought has dried up most fish-breeding ponds, rivers and canals, which also serve as easy and cheap sources of irrigation of farm land. The top soil is unable to retain the moisture. Growing vegetables under such conditions are posing a big challenge to farmers. The sowing of the rain-fed kharif crop, paddy, has already been delayed by three to four weeks in most parts of the country.

The groundwater levels have fallen precariously in large majority areas of rural India. The reckless exploitation of groundwater for big commercial gains by water-based industries such as soft drinks, juices and beer, taking the full advantage of excessive heat and water crisis, are making things worse. Shallow tube-wells are running dry. Even drinking water is become scarce in villages. Also, taking advantage of the eluding seasonal rains are those dishonest and greedy hoarders, who are stockpiling essential commodities to strike it rich if the summer monsoon fails to make an impact in the next four weeks. With water in reservoirs supplying drinking water in metro-cities such as Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi fast reaching their danger levels, the spectre of a country-wide drought is looming large.

Under such circumstances, the weekly news release by the government showing a continuous fall in the inflation rates rather appears to be a cruel joke on the common man. There is a very little mention of the consumer price index and the government's concern about its alarming rise in recent weeks in these press releases. Similarly inexplicable is the treatment by the mainstream media, both print and electronic, of the issue of the uncontrolled price inflation of essential commodities and consumer goods in the country's retail markets for the second successive year and how it is impacting the life and living standards of the common man, including those leaving below the poverty line (BPL).

The weekly inflation rate, compiled and dished out by the central statistical organisation (CSO) under the planning commission, projects an average number that has little relevance to the life of the common man. It is totally mechanical as its takes into account the individual indices of the whole-sale prices of a number of commodities and goods, including minerals and metals, in a basket, each given a degree of importance or weightage in the system. The prices of food articles and essential agricultural commodities get the least importance in the system.

Thus, the weekly whole-sale price index (WPI), or the official inflation index, grossly undermines the index of prices of consumer goods (CPI), the daily dire necessities of the common man or the average households. The general public are more concerned about the CPI. The prices of food items account for over half the monthly expenses of nearly 60 per cent of the country's population belonging to the low-income group, including industrial workers, agricultural labourers, rural artisans, daily wage earners, petty traders, part-time jobbers and the jobless. The so-called official inflation rate (WPI) obviously ignores the concerns of this vast majority section of our people.

The government rarely talks about the CPI. There is no action plan to ensure food security, price stability and the supply of essentials to all concerned at affordable prices. Also, there is no scientific policy for exploitation, preservation and distribution of water, the real life-line of the public and the most important of all natural resources. While this priceless commodity is being over-exploited by industry for commercial gains, the farmers and the common man are the worst victims of the growing water shortage and deteriorating water quality across the country. The government's lack of concern for these aspects of life is reflected in its attitude towards the CPI, an indicator of the availability of essential commodities and consumer goods in the market. Early lessons in economics study say that availability determines the prices of most commodities.

No inclusive growth strategy that ignores violent movements of the CPI is destined to fall flat. It will be a waste of the so-called huge budget expenditure for raising the rural household income and living standard, if the income is far outstripped by the prices of essential items of consumption. The rural employment guarantee scheme will be useless if it fails to provide even a square meal to the family of a beneficiary of the programme. Unfortunately, the government has long undermined the importance of the CPI and failed to link its movement with the policies to protect the real income of the common man in terms of the purchasing capacity and the value of his small savings. Instead, the WPI has got all the attention to influence the government policies on investment, taxation, import-exports and bank rates which are immediate concerns of the richer sections of the society. Despite the government's professed rural focus in the 2009-10 national budget, there is little change in its attitude towards the rising CPI. The WPI and the CPI are moving in reverse direction. That is the dilemma. (IPA Service)