Reducing inequalities at several levels essential to meet citizens’ basic needs

■ There is widespread agreement today that reduction of inequalities can help greatly to meet basic needs of the poor. However, despite this recognition, unacceptably high levels of inequalities have not just persisted but have even widened...

In any planning to ensure that the basic needs of all people are met in a satisfactory way we cannot ignore some accentuating problems. First, the overall population is increasing and there is in particular a fast population growth trend in some of the poorest countries. Second, what is even more important is that despite the efforts under way to check climate change and related global environmental problems, it is likely that the damage from these is likely to accentuate in the coming years.

Keeping in view these factors if we want to meet the basic needs of all people, then the need for reducing inequalities at all levels is now greater than ever before. While reducing economic inequalities is important, it is no less important to significantly reduce social inequalities, which exist at various levels including gender, caste, religion, ethnicity, etc. While Sustainable Development Goal 10 is broadly about reducing inequalities and within nations, its second sub- component more specifically says: By 2030 empower and promote the social, political and economic inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other identity. In particular it is very important to check the marginalisation of indigenous and tribal communities in various parts of the world and to strengthen their rights.

The most likely estimates suggest that the world population will grow from around 7.5 billion today to 10 billion by the end of the century. The United Nations SecretaryGeneral’s High- Level Panel on Global Sustainability ( UNSHPGS) wrote in 2012: “The world’s population now stands at over seven billion. Another billion people are expected to arrive within the next 15 years or so... The latest data suggests that the global population is likely to reach nine billion people by 2040 and to exceed 10 billion in 2100.”

The struggle to meet basic needs of all is likely to be most acute in least developed countries. These countries have a much higher population growth rate. These countries had a population of 832 million, which the panel said, is projected to grow to 1.26 billion people in 2030, an increase of 51 per cent in just two decades.

The UN panel pointed out that basic needs of significant sections of world population are still unmet.

◗ One billion people currently lack access to nutritious food.

◗ 2.6 billion are without access to basic sanitation.

◗ 884 million people lack access to clean water.

So ensuring that basic needs of all people are met as the world population rises from 7.5 billion to around 10 billion is going to be a huge challenge, particularly in view of all the uncertainties caused by climate change and related factors.

In such a situation we need to place greater reliance than before on those socio- economic policies, which are associated at high levels of uncertainty with improved access to basic needs on the part of poorer communities and people. There is widespread agreement today that reduction of inequalities can help greatly to meet basic needs of the poor. However, despite this recognition, unacceptably high levels of inequalities have not just persisted but have even widened.

The high- level UN panel quoted above noted several aspects of these inequalities.

Gross national income per capita ( based on purchasing power parity) in high- income countries was about five times higher than in middle- income countries in 2010 and about 30 times higher than in low- income countries.

Food wasted by consumers in high- income countries ( 222 million tonnes) is roughly equal to the entire food production of sub- Saharan Africa ( 230 million tonnes).

The irrigation required to produce the amount of food wasted annually is estimated to be equivalent to the domestic water needs of nine billion people.

Estimates suggest that as much as 80 million hectares of land ( and the water that flows over or beneath it) have been acquired in new international investment deals since 2000, more than half of it in sub- Saharan Africa.

National- level studies have also indicated high and increasing inequalities for many countries. A recent study by Thomas Piketty and Lucas Chancel regarding inequalities in India indicated that during 1982- 2014, the share of the top one per cent in national income increased from 6.2 per cent to 21.7 per cent, while the income of the top 0.01 per cent of the country’s population increased by 1,834 per cent during 1980- 2014.

Oxfam has noted in its widely quoted report “Even it up” ( 2017) that reduction of inequalities can contribute to meeting the basic needs of vulnerable people but this potential has not been realised. In 2014, a tax of 1.5 per cent on the wealth of billionaires could fill the annual gaps in funding needed to get every child into school and deliver health services in the poorest countries. If India reduces inequality by 36 per cent, it can virtually eliminate extreme poverty. In 2013 the world was losing $ 156 billion a year in tax revenue as a result of wealthy individuals hiding their assets in offshore tax havens.

This indicates that there are many possibilities of obtaining enormous economic resources for the poor if justice- based taxation steps are taken with respect to the richest 0.1 per cent of people at the top of the wealth and income ladder. This includes stronger action against many tax- defaulters/ taxavoiders and economic offenders and those who have stolen public funds in huge scams. However, due to the involvements of very powerful interests such action has rarely been taken adequately and with consistency and continuity.

At a more basic level budget allocations should be adequate for social sector so that essential services like health, education, pensions and other essential aspects of social security can reach all people. Basic livelihoods of small farmers and workers and the self- employed should be well protected.

In rural areas land reforms should be implemented so that the landless are also able to get access to at least some land apart from their housing rights being ensured in a satisfactory way. At the same time the land rights of small farmers should be well protected.

The sections of population who have suffered historical injustice should be identified carefully so that preferential treatment can be provided to them in several ways till they reach a situation of equality with other sections of society. In India, for example, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been identified in the Constitution for this purpose but the benefits of preferential treatment do not always reach them and in addition they are also at the receiving end of various forms of injustice including violence.

Hence, it is important to reassert that the march towards equality of various communities, which suffered historical injustice, will continue to get support. This is particularly true of indigenous communities and tribal communities that get marginalised in many countries and regions and a commitment to their rights is certainly needed. At the same time very basic reforms are also needed in world economy and trade to reduce significantly the inequalities at the international level.