The latest World Inequality Report 2022 has been released and the findings are unsatisfactory. According to the report, India is not just a poor nation but also “very unequal”. The nation’s elites have a grip on 57% of the nation’s income, while the other half of the country’s citizens are left with just a 13% share in the national income.
The report suggested, “While the top 10% and top 1% hold respectively 57% and 22% of total national income, the bottom 50% share has gone down to 13%. India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with an affluent elite.”
Not just this, but the world’s income too went down in the year 2020. A half dip was seen in rich and developed nations and another half dip was noticed in developing countries.
NITI Aayog’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) states that one in four people in India is multidimensionally poor. Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh are the poorest states of India — 51% in Bihar, 42% in Jharkhand and 37% in Uttar Pradesh are poor.
What Does This Means For India?
More than 381 mn people live in multidimensional poverty in India.
Out of 1.3 billion multidimensionally poor people, 836 million came from households where no woman had undergone more than 6 years of schooling.#education #poverty
— Youth Ki Awaaz (@YouthKiAwaaz) October 14, 2021
The inequality report indicates the rich-poor gap the nation is living with. With every coming year, the rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer. The wealth is secured in the hands of elites and nothing remains for the poor sector.
We must fear the widening rich-poor gap because if this doesn’t stop, then the little wealth that the poor sector has won’t be there anymore. Fighting the widening gap and lessening it is what we can do. More focus should be given to the education sector so that graduates get employment and make wealth to come out of the circle of poverty.
The agriculture sector of our nation is our strength. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 70% of people in India depend on the agricultural sector to derive income. Thus, attempts must be made to boost that particular sector so that it clocks more wealth.
More employment opportunities must be created for enabling the unemployed group to make money. 7.4% of people are unemployed in the nation, according to unemployment rate data in India. The rich-poor gap in India should be lessened and more wealth should come into the hands of poor citizens. That’s how our nation will develop.