Rs 55 lakh salary to raise one child? LinkedIn post jolts urban Indian parents online

Think raising a kid in India is expensive? Try Rs 13 lakh a year for just one child, says a stunned Mumbai man whose LinkedIn post is fueling fierce debate online.

Ankur Jhaveri, reacting to a chat with his cousin who teaches at an international school, shared the eye-watering math in a now-viral post: “I never realised the real cost of raising kids in India,” he wrote.

Jhaveri pegged annual tuition at Rs 7–9 lakh for top-tier schools, with uniforms, books, tuitions, and incidentals adding Rs 5–6 lakh more. “Now, assuming you would spend about 30% of your income on your kids — this means your net salary should be about Rs 43-44 lakhs,” he wrote. 

With tax factored in, “your gross salary… should be about Rs 55 lakhs.”

“And this is if you have ONE kid,” he added. “Have another one, and these numbers increase substantially.”

Anticipating pushback, Jhaveri noted that while ICSE or CBSE schools may cost less, “most parents (at least here on LinkedIn) would want the best education for their kids… The best ICSE schools (the legacy ones) are extremely tough to get into.”

His estimate lit up LinkedIn. “I would tag these schools as ‘branded’ schools,” one user remarked. Another suggested the pressure to spend stems more from FOMO than necessity.

Some parents argued the figure is skewed, noting good schools can cost just Rs 1–2 lakh annually. “Not all good schools are 7–9 lakhs/year,” one user wrote.

Still, Jhaveri’s post struck a nerve, tapping into a growing anxiety among urban parents trying to balance aspiration with affordability.