Request to NRI

  Though this blog may be applicable to anyone reading my intent is to reach out to NRIs. For a NRI, request for donation back home may come from parents, siblings, Inlaws, friends, neighbours etc., and nature of the financial assistance may be for various reasons like Religious, Education, Marriage, Health, Environmental and Humanitarian basis (Need of clothes, construction of kitchen or rest room, old age home maintenance etc.,).End of the day it is hard earned money and NRI has the right to choose where he/she wants their funds to be directed. This is on top of the charity a NRI has to do locally on where they live. Since I have been on both the side of the spectrum I want to throw some light on areas where there is help needed in India which unfortunately doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

  I am not going to elaborate more on Religious and Education donations since these two are areas where people are well aware of the need and donors are equipped with more information. If you take temples for example, we have beautiful architecture with so much workmanship and in order to preserve culture and heritage we need to preserve our temples which demands so much of labor which in turn translates to funds. Also Education is one area people feel it will wipe away poverty of coming generations hence donate generously for Education purposes. These are areas where there is awareness in place.

 I would like to talk on two areas where there is help needed but unfortunately many times these are overlooked.

[1] Donations on Health: Health is wealth was merely a proverb in pre corona era but Corona has rewritten the rules and now Health is much more than wealth. 
If you take for Men some of the common Health issues and their costs are as follows (These are all ball park estimates and differs case to case based on age, comorbidities, gender, genes, Nature of the hospital, experience level of consultants, referrals, discounts, insurance coverage etc.,)

   (a) Heart issues: Open heart surgeries may be around 1.5 to 3 lakhs, In general heart surgeries may be around 1 to 2 lakhs
   (b) Kidney issues: Dialysis is around 2000, related surgery is around 15000, Kidney transplant is around 6 lakhs, Removing stone is anywhere between 60000 to 75000; Gall bladder stone surgeries are bit more and it costs around 1.5 to 2 lakhs
   (c) Cancer issues: Based on which stage patient goes as there are many packages based on case to case - it can start anywhere from 2 lakhs to 4/6/8 lakhs 
   (d) Stroke related ailments: It comes around 1 to 2 lakhs
   (e) Cataract surgeries: Anywhere between 20000 to 50000
   (f) Varicose related ailments: Surgery comes around 50000 to 80000

Common Health issues for women and its costs are as follows 

(a)    Breast Cancer: Based on which stage patient goes as there are many packages based on case to case - it can start anywhere from 2 lakhs to 4/6 lakhs
(b)    Thyroid: Mostly medication and consultation but if surgery is required then costs comes around 1 to 1.5 lakhs
(c)   Uterus removal: Beyond 45 years many may need this and costs comes around 60000 to 1 lakh
(d) Joint replacement: Ladies undergo this issue due to wear and tear of bones and it roughly costs 1.5 lakhs per leg and we are talking about 3 lakhs for 2 legs

Accidental injuries are common and based on the severity costs differs from case to case. 

 Now let us know about which group a particular beneficiary may belong to – Group A which comprises 25% of the population may go to Apollo Hospitals for treatment and if someone can afford to go to Apollo Hospitals then they may not need Health assistance from abroad so we can rule out this category. Group C which comprises of other 25% may visit Government hospitals for treatment and these days Government hospitals are much more equipped but still people always have second thoughts on their efficiency. People who get treated here fall under particular section and cost of treatment is zero (utilizing government schemes) with negligible expense for Blood work, lab results etc., so may not need assistance and we can rule out this category too. Group B which comprise of 50% are the ones who can neither go to Apollo nor visit Government Hospitals and they are the ones who approach NRIs for Assistance and this group forms major chunk of the people. 

 Now just for discussion let us take a person who has undergone a major Heart attack where Surgery has be done right away as per recommendation. Based on hospital, age, severity and other complications bill may come anywhere between 75000 to 2.5 lakhs (Discounts and Health insurance are not brought into the equation to make things simple). Let us take the average value which is around 1.25 lakhs; This person maybe salaried and may earn around 30K/month and with single breadwinner of the family this amount is a huge one considering the fact he is taking care of his kids education which extracts good part of your income. At this juncture the guy reaches out to NRI from his network circle. A guy who is a teenager gets funding for education but just imagine the person who underwent a surgery – His income is not much, does not have any backup from his parents/in laws, age is catching up and unexpected expense like these may eat up his savings which he had allocated for kids education and marriage. Banks may even give loan to a teenager citing education purpose (obviously may charge more interest if no collateral is provided) but a person who is in their mid 50’s banks do not even consider giving you loan. I would say person in their mid fifties badly need help. Kindly do not misunderstand that I am against educational assistance, in fact if you want to fix the root cause so that such instances does not happen in future then we got to help people who need educational assistance but the guy who is in his fifties does not have education for no fault of his since his parents stopped education for funding purpose. It is rude to ignore or question him and if he is hale and healthy then he can fulfil family commitments all by himself in whatever capacity. Health insurance is more prominent in corporate and people who can afford but many end up not having one. Personally I have seen many folks postponing surgeries citing cost reasons and stick with medication. 

 [2] Donation for Environmental purpose: Instances like Biden on his very first day at office as President signing back into Paris agreement, Narendra Modi during Climate Adaptation Summit 2021 stressing the importance of living in harmony with nature just reiterates how the World leaders see climate change and global warming. Infosys founder Narayana Murthy wrote a lovely letter to his Daughter and in the last paragraph he has mentioned "As you pursue your goals and live a contended life, remember that there is only one planet for us to live in and that planet is now becoming endangered. Remember that it is your responsibility to pass on this planet to Krishnaa in a better condition than you got it from us."  This pretty much summarizes the current scenario ....

My personal feeling is Corona is just revenge from nature towards mankind for being greedy. Flora and Fauna should coexist but in the name of Economic Liberalization we are just destroying everything and then we cry hell broke loose. Just look around and notice number of earthquakes happening around the world, soil erosion is happening as more and more number of trees are destroyed, we are losing forestland very quickly and if we lose forests then we lose wild habitats too, sea is contaminated by dumping all waste and fisheries are running a huge risk of being exploited, bird species is coming down drastically due to 4G/5G network antennas, water bodies like lakes, ponds and rivers are not maintained and groundwater level goes way too low etc., Environmental consequences of reduction in green cover has been wide ranging right from increase in air pollution, ground water depletion, frequent flooding and overall rise in temperature. Places like Chennai, Bangalore are becoming concrete jungles and according to Asthma allergy resource centre more young kids are showing asthmatic symptoms than ever before. I would like to consider Environmental projects like taking singles in a cricket match, it may not be fancy like hitting fours and sixers but taking singles and rotating strikes play a crucial role in final output of the match. Similarly environmental projects like planting trees, preserving natural water bodies like lakes, rain water conservation, Tapping energy efficient projects like Solar installation all are very important. So when a NRI is approached for these projects it may not appear as attractive or in other words as significant like other streams (You may tend to think paying semester fees is much more important than planting a tree whose benefit is realized only after 20 years). If everyone tend to think the same way we all may have jobs but may not have an environment to live for future generation. So not just back home in India even in the place they reside a NRI has to look into Environmental projects much more seriously and our mantra should be to live in harmony with nature.

   I have just highlighted these two areas to provide more awareness and if this is going to make you reflect more then I will consider my purpose of coming up with this blog is served. Once again I am not against donations on particular streams, it is your hard earned money and you have every right to direct where you want. As we strive to parent our kids by giving them good education we as a society and community should also come together to create a better environment in whatever capacity we can.