Even before the US and Israel launched the war with Iran, Kunta Devi and her son earned barely enough to survive from their work in the factories outside New Delhi. When the price of cooking gas quadrupled almost overnight, their income of Rs20,000 ($211) a month no longer paid the bills.
So, Devi did the same as thousands of other Indian factory workers: she abandoned her job in an industrial area and made the long journey back to her home village, where free accommodation and government food handouts compensate for a lack of work.
“Our lives won’t be back on track until the war ends because of the rise in the price of cooking gas,” said her son Raja Babu, 24, who along with his mother had left their lodgings on the outskirts of the capital.