2 days ago, while going through status updates on Facebook, I read an update from a friend who shared the news of an ex-colleague, lets call him S, who had passed away. The news was very shocking for me. I inquired with my friend for the details of the tragedy. S had jaundice a couple of weeks ago and he suffered a relapse of the same. My friend informed me that apparently S didn’t have the money to get himself treated at a good clinic/hospital. I asked my friend, why S didn’t take the mediclaim under company healthcare policy. Then I realized – he was paid on cash basis.
One of the sad parts of working in a domestic 3rd party BPO is that the salaries for employees can go really low, sometimes in the range of 5k-7k a month, which in a city like Mumbai is peanuts. When organizations hire employees at such low wages, they offer the employee the choice of getting the salary in cash or via normal payroll. When an employee chooses to get paid in cash, he does not have deductions like PF, PT and income tax. This way the employee gets more take home salary. However, getting paid in cash also means that the employee is not on the payroll of the organization and therefore, does not get benefits like PF and health care.
S couldn’t get himself treated because he couldn’t afford the treatment which made realize that there are so many people like S out there. In our daily lives, there is a lot of money which we spend on things which we don’t really need. Instead of spending that money, we can donate that money to a charity which will help people who cannot fend for themselves. May be such actions will make the world a better place to live in for all of us.
My thoughts...My story 