BEFORE pooling savings from her extended family to buy a refrigerator, Sheela Naik, who earns $80 a month as a housemaid on the outskirts of Goa, had to shop daily at market stalls and try to cook just the right amount for her household of ten each night. After serving meat or fish at family get-togethers, she would ask neighbours with fridges to store the leftovers. “They would help but still make a face,” she says. Now she shops weekly at a bigger market and cooks several meals at a time. Her fridge holds leftover carrots, beans and tomatoes, as well as her invalid mother-in-law’s medicine. The freezer has half a kilo of mackerel bought at a discount.Fridges are transforming women’s lives in India and other emerging markets, just as they did in developed countries decades ago. They are next on families’ wishlists after mobile phones and televisions, usually becoming affordable when household incomes pass around $3,000 a year. Take-up is swifter in places that are urbanising fast. According to Euromonitor, a research firm, ownership in China has leapt from 24% in 1994 to 88% today, whereas in Peru,...
from The Economist: International http://ift.tt/1nxrV9b
No comments:
Post a Comment