Great divide: India’s rich get richer

During the pandemic, as the poor suffered and the middle class shrunk by 32 million, billionaires saw their wealth surge 121%

As India celebrates its 74th Republic Day, it is a moment to reflect on the sanctity of its Constitution, which in recent times has been stirred, but remains sacrosanct. We the people of India are now grappling with another divide, the shadow of stark economic disparity.

The rich 1 per cent of India’s population now owns more than 40 per cent of the country’s wealth, while the bottom half of the population shares just 3 per cent. It is no longer just anecdotal that India is a country comfortable for the rich. The latest report by Oxfam — an umbrella of organisations fighting global poverty — is worrying not just for what it exposes, but also for what it implies. India is the world’s fastest-growing economy, but by casually leaving its poor behind as collateral damage, it now has an unfathomable pool of forgotten people.

Every second almost two Indians are pushed into poverty, and their ecosystem remains stagnant, oscillating between price hikes and joblessness. India’s wealth distribution has been imbalanced for decades, but the new pandemic reality is staggering. India now has a 350 million population that faces food insecurity; it ranked a dismal 107 out of 121 nations in the last global hunger index, a report dismissed by the government. With a competitive population, China continues to reverse its scale.

India has 166 billionaires and while that is a positive, disproportionate fortune creation begs introspection on the how and why. The rapid rise for the elite few needs just a quick check. In 2000, the country had only nine billionaires. During the pandemic, as the poor migrated home and the middle class shrunk by 32 million, Indian billionaires saw a whopping 121 per cent surge in their wealth.

Prohibitive health care and lack of education

The glaring economic inequality can no longer be hidden, nor does it take into account structurally weak areas of minimum or daily wages where the poor fall off the train without a fuss. It has expanded the definition of the marginalised. Lines around caste, gender, and social milieu are still drawn, but health care remains prohibitive and lack of education a glaring barrier to social mobility.

Oxfam suggests that taxing India’s 10 richest at 5 per cent can fetch enough money to bring children back to school. The report also flags taxation inequality; 64 per cent of GST was collected from the bottom half of the population, while the top 10 per cent, contributed 4 per cent. Women have fallen off the ladder. Post-pandemic, 90 per cent of the female population is no longer in the workforce.

The playground of the rich has turned on its head the much-brandished slogan Sabka saath sabka vikas (development for all). Rhetoric alone cannot fill an empty stomach. There were many pandemic premonitions, but this quiet tilt that makes a minuscule percentage of the chosen people wasn’t one of them. Growth comes only when it gives hope to every stratum; for now, as the rich get richer, the poor are firmly in survival mode.