The Associated Press helpfully tells us the story of India’s rat catchers. The headline is from this line in the story: “Sheikh’s father is also a rat catcher. His brothers sell vegetables from a cart and wish they could be rat catchers too.” These guys are envied for their steady pay check, which can amount to Rs. 12,000 per month if they meet their quota! That is (the article says) just a little less than what a bus driver or call centre worker makes. Fascinating, if a little morbid reading. It also shows how much further we need to progress as a country.

The competition for rat catcher jobs in Mumbai is stiff. Only men aged 18 to 30 need apply. They must be able to lift a 50 kilogram (110 pound) sack and run a few kilometers (miles). They must demonstrate their ability to catch and kill a rat in the dark within ten minutes.

Each rat catcher must kill 30 rats a night, six nights a week. If he doesn’t make the quota, he doesn’t get paid.

Arun Bamne of the city’s insecticide department, which oversees the rat-catching, says people badly need jobs. The last time the city recruited, he said, over 4,000 people — some with university degrees — applied for 33 rat catcher positions.

Joining the war on rats does not lead, with time and diligence, to a desk job in a fan-cooled administrative office. After half a dozen years, a man might be moved to the day shift, laying traps and setting poison bait. But there is little else to look forward to.