As a former Economics Professor at MIT (Mirzapur Institute of Technology), I say around Rs 35,000 a month for a couple and above Rs 60,000 if you have a kid and add at least another Rs 25,000 if you have another extra kid and another Rs 20,000 if you have your parents living with you as well. So, a family of 4 would need at least Rs 100,000 a month to live a decent basic everyday life in Kathmandu or we could say in most of the so-called urban areas in our country.
Let's suppose you are just a person out from the valley trying to make it in the Capital. How much salary would you need to draw to even survive in the cold dark alleys of Kathmandu? I talked to a 20-year old the other day who works for a security company. Not those trading securities in the Stock Exchange but your everyday guard duty and asking people to stay in line and then get used to the insults from a guy who wants to cut the line and think he has accomplished something for the day.
The lad makes Rs 15,000 per month which is a little more than US$100! He lives with his 2 other friends in Imadol in an empty lot with tin roofs and have to use the water from the well dug up by the landlord. They pay Rs 6,000 for the room. They usually cook dinner together and they spend around Rs 6,000 monthly for dinner for basic dal, bhat and tarkari including the cooking oil, masala, little bit of onion and tomato and the cooking gas as well. Once in a while, they will have some chicken.They can' afford buff because it cost twice the price of chicken. It cost them around Rs 2,000 for the protein stuff.
Our lad takes the micro bus everyday from Imadol to NAC (Nepal Airlines Corporation). Yes, that's the name of the place, named after the NAC building. It's right next to Kathmandu Mall. It cost him around Rs 1,500 per month on transportation. He works as a security guard around the Sankata Temple premises.
For the first month, the security company deducted Rs 8,000 for his so-called security clothes, all black outfit, probably inspired by the SWAT Team from LA. His citizenship ID, the original one is safely locked up in the security's office manager's vault and he gets paid only 45 days after his initial start date. Majority of the so-called private companies in Nepal do this to extend their cash flow maybe or want to take back half a month's pay in case the employee suddenly gets his visa and flies to Romania.
So let's come back to the math part again. Rs 1,500 for transportation. Rs 2,000 for rent. Rs 3,000 for dinner. And now comes his morning breakfast which he has at one of the tea shops surrounding Sankata Temple. One egg, chana aloo and milk tea will put him back Rs 100 daily and then lunch is Momo for Rs 100, the cheap one with lots of fat and adulterated parts from some animal or few animals. And Rs 20 for some beetle nut mix max which will give him oral cancer in a decade. He is spending more than 5,200 monthly for his daily breakfast, so-called lunch Khaja and some cancer nuts.
The lad has already spent around Rs 12,000 now with his Rs 3,000, he will probably spend a thousand on recharge cards mostly for data packs as he is addicted to TikTok. His saving is Rs 2,000 per month and we haven't even added any medical cost if he gets sick or if he needs a new pair of shoes or buy a cool Chinese T-shirt in MahaBouddha.
For a family, you need at least a two room apartment and a kitchen. The cheapest part in the Capital offers Rs 15,000 foo such apartments and goes twice or thrice or ten times more in other parts of town.
A husband and a wife and a kid will need more than Rs 60,000 per month. Apartment cost is Rs 15,000 for basic and then school fees is minimum Rs 15,000 and up for a decent school. Rs 15,000 for food if eating deal bhat and basic vegetables. If you add Saturday recreation at fun park and some other recreation activity then set aside at least Rs 2,000 per Saturday which comes to Rs 8,000 per month. Then some wifi, recharge cards and laundry and health materials and so on will put them back another Rs 5,000. And add some electricity and water charge by the slimy landlords of the Valley which will be minimum Rs 2,000.
So even if a husband and wife work decent jobs which pays them at least Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 each which is like mid-level managerial salary in town... they will still have no saving at the end of the month.
At the end of the day, 35 years of rule by so-called socialists and Communist governments and none of them have bothered to offer free or even heavily subsidized healthcare or education for the general public. The top government officials and politicians travel to foreign lands for medical treatments while their kids are all abroad for further studies and the common folks are barely surviving.
No wonder, 5 milllion folks are abroad trying to make a decent living to take care of their families and every year, nearly half a million leave the land of ours for better economic or educational opportunities.