by Sagnik Saha (Roll no.

-1976073,Section - C)

As India is one of the fastest-growing economy in the world, poverty is

on the decline in the country, with close to 44 Indians escaping
extreme poverty every minute, as per the World Poverty Clock. In May
2012, the World Bank reviewed and proposed revisions to their
poverty calculation methodology and purchasing power parity basis
for measuring poverty worldwide. It was a minimal 3.6% in terms of
percentage. As of 2020, the incidence of multidimensional poverty has
significantly reduced, declining from 54.7 percent to 6 percent.

According to United Nations Development Programme Administrator

Achim Steiner, India lifted 271 million people out of poverty in a
10-year time period from 2005/06 to 2015/16. However, even though
the Inequality in India continues to rise rapidly.

This current situation created by the covid-19 outbreak will worsen the
India’s poverty. As the supply chain remains disrupted, deprived of
basic necessities many have died of exhaustion and starvation, while
many have been run over by trucks and cars on highways. Many more
will die of the heat in the coming days. Thus those who remain poor
are chronically poor due to vicious cycle of poverty. The World Bank
claims that the COVID pandemic will reverse hard fought gains in
poverty reduction in India.

The bad news is that India has become more unequal over time to a
situation where it now is one of the most unequal countries in the
world. India ranks among the one the most high inequality large
countries. Inequality in India has increased in all dimensions( political
inequality, income and wealth inequality, life inequality, inequality of
treatment and responsibility and inequality in membership). This
threatens to hurt the growth, political and social stability of the
country.

The problem gender inequality remains high as the Labour force

participation in urban as well as rural is more male driven than female.
Female participation in the Labour force is much less (8.5%) compared
to the male participation (65%) in Urban India.And Unemployment
levels are much greater among Females (25.9%) than males (10.8%) in
Urban India.

This trend line is showing the ups and downs of income inequality in
India over widely spread timeline. The line graph states that the income
inequality in India declined sharply between the 1950s and 1980s but
has increased thereafter. Since the 1980s, the income share of the top
1% has been increasing, reaching 22% for the most recent year for
which estimates are available.

In 2000, $428 billion (36.8 per cent) of the total Indian National Wealth
was concentrated in the hands of only 1 per cent of individuals (57.11
lakh). On this basis, rich Indians enjoyed $74,935 per capita of wealth.
On the other extreme were the remaining 99 per cent of Indians with
only $1,300 per capita of wealth.

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The richest 10 per cent of adult Indians (5.7 crore) have grabbed control
over 66 per cent of wealth. They are enjoying per capita wealth
amounting to $13,419. The remaining 90 per cent of the population had
per capita wealth worth $772.

In 2000, the richest top 1 per cent of people enjoyed 58 times the
wealth of the rest of the population. In 2014, this gap between the rich
and the poor has widened to 95 times.

Evidence of inequality from Income data: IHDS Survey (2005) Our

inequality indices on income are among the worst in the world. Income
inequality based on IHDS data increased from 0.54 in 2004-05 to 0.55 in
2011-12.

A) India’s Income Inequality is at its highest since the inception of the

Income Tax Act (1922), which allowed the Income Tax Department to
systematically record data on income tax tabulations. The period between
1951 to 1980 saw a narrowing of the income back between bottom and top
earners, but the trend has reversed over the period between 1980-2014.
Since the 1980s, the income share of the top 1% has been increasing,
reaching 22%, even as the income share of the bottom 50% fell to 14.7%.
Some of the main causes in inequality of income distribution are :

I) Unemployment : The main reason for low level of income of the

majority of Indian people is unemployment and underemployment and the
consequent low productivity of labour. Low labour productivity implies low
rate of economic growth which is the main cause of poverty and inequality
of the large masses of people. And since sufficient Employment/job
Opportunities could not be created through the process of planned
economic development, it was not possible to increase the income levels of
most people.
II) Inflation : During inflation, few profit earners gain and most wage
earners lose. This is exactly what has happened in India. Since wages have
lagged behind prices, profits have increased. This has created more and
more inequality. Wages and salaries of workers in unorganised sectors
(such as agriculture and small-scale and cottage industries) do not increase.
So their real income (purchase income) falls.
III) Tax Evasion : In India, the personal income tax rates are very high. High
tax rates encourage evasion and avoidance and give birth to a parallel
economy. Due to undue concentration of incomes in a few hands caused
by large- scale tax evasion.  Class Conflicts between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’s.
 Political Domination(corruption)
B) Discrimination against women from or even before birth guarantees  Exploitation(The rich will exploit the poor)
them a marginal role in Indian society, and ensures that they are poorer,  Creation of monopolies
less educated and facing more unemployment and health risks than men.  Suppression of talent
The cumulative effects of these inequalities worsen deprivation but the  Moral degradation(inequalities will spoil the rich and degrade the
opposite is also true and by addressing this Gender Inequality a positive poor)
multiplier effect can reduce poverty and can lead country’s growth.

Gender Inequality subsists in Indian economy and prevails in all sectors of

life like health, education, economics and politics. Men have always had  More and better Job Opportunities for both men and especially
the upper hand in these fields, depicting how deeply patriarchy is women.
entrenched in India. Women have been actively involved in economic  Implement strict and high tax rate for the top 1% rich people.
activities and labor force in contemporary times. In the agriculture sector  Campaigns for to reduce discrimination.(focusing that every life is
for instance, 74% of the labor force consists of women.Yet a huge wage precious)
gap remains between male and female. Women have always been  More reservation of seats for women in both corporate and
disbanded from share in the properties as it is believed that men are the government sector.
ones who actually carry their generation forward and earn bread and  Investing in public infrastructure(education,better labour
butter for the family, while women would just sustain upon the money laws,taxation on wealth like inheritance)
earned by men. Women also lack behind the corporate and government  More Woman empowerment campaigns.
sectors. Earlier, not a single woman was to be seen in the top tier of the  Reduction of corruption.
corporate world. Today, there has been some escalation in the number of
woman in these top sectors. Even though there have been reforms and
number of women have increased in jobs but still they lag behind in the
total percentage of jobs. Gender wage gap is highest in India according (economicdiscussion.net,jgu.edu.in,unesco.org)
International Labor Organization women are paid 34% less than men.
Email : sagniksaha231199@gmail.com
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