There is a simple test of prosperity that no economic survey captures. Watch how an affluent customer speaks to a waiter after an expensive meal, a resident confronts a security guard, a passenger argues with an airline employee or a consumer reacts to a delayed delivery. The tone can change when the other person has less money or power.

India’s economic mobility deserves celebration. Families that once lived with scarcity can now afford homes, cars, travel, education, healthcare, and experiences their parents could only imagine. Yet, there is an uncomfortable possibility in this new prosperity: we may be becoming better at displaying what we have than at understanding what it gives us no right to do to others.

We can be extraordinarily deferential to the powerful and casually dismissive of those below us. A designation, surname, accent, school, occupation, neighbourhood or connection can still determine how quickly respect is offered. Economic mobility has disrupted some old hierarchies, but the instinct to rank people remains stubbornly intact.

The service economy makes this particularly visible. The waiter, driver, delivery rider, cleaner, security guard, technician, and restaurant worker have become essential to urban convenience, yet their time is often treated as cheaper than ours. We expect flexibility from them while guarding our own time fiercely. Their labour matters when we need it and becomes almost invisible once the need has been met.

Domestic workers expose an even deeper faultline. A household of educated people and professionals may speak........

© Free Press Journal