NEW DELHI – Inequality in India is on the rise for the last three decades,so much so that the total wealth of Indian billionaires is 15% of the GDP,thanks to the “lopsided” policies of successive governments, Oxfam Indiasaid in a report on Thursday, PTI has reported.
It said the wealthiest in India have cornered a huge part of the wealthcreated in the country through crony capitalism and inheritance, whilepeople at the bottom are seeing their shares being reduced further.
“These inequalities are the result of package of reforms adopted during thebig bang liberalisation of 1991 and the subsequent policies adopted,” saidOxfam India CEO Nisha Agrawal.
The report noted that by the latest estimates, the total wealth of Indianbillionaires is 15% of the GDP of the country; this has risen from 10% onlyfive years ago.
In 2017, India had 101 billionaires.
The report titled ‘The Widening Gaps: India Inequality Report 2018’, notedthat the country ranks among the most unequal countries in the world on allparameters of income, consumption and wealth and the reason behind this isthe “lopsided” policy choices made by successive governments.
“Specific policy choices which favoured capital rather than labour, andfavoured skilled rather than unskilled labour, are part of the structure ofthe growth trajectory in India,” the report said.
The report analysed various sources of data and describes how the path ofinequality has changed in India-from being stagnant in 1980s, to itsincrease since 1991, and to its subsequent and continued surge in recentyears until 2017.
“What is particularly worrying in India’s case is that economic inequalityis being added to a society that is already fractured along the lines ofcaste, religion, region and gender. Apart from being a moral concern,reducing inequality is central to the functioning of India’s democracy,“said Professor Himanshu, author of the report.
Agrawal further noted that the only way to reverse this trend is toincrease tax collection through progressive direct taxation ”such asintroducing wealth and inheritance taxes” and spending them on health,education and nutrition for the poor, focusing specially on the earlychildhood development of the poor.
“Only then can one hope to create a more equal opportunity country andspread the benefits of high growth more widely,” Agrawal added.
A report released by the international rights group Oxfam before the startof the World Economic Forum in Davos noted that the richest 1percentgathered 73% wealth in the country last year.
The survey also showed that the wealth of India’s richest 1% increased byover Rs 20.9 trillion during 2017. On the other hand 67 crore Indianscomprising the population’s poorest half saw their wealth rise by just 1%.