Facts: Economic Disparity In India

• Inequality in earnings has doubled in India over the last two decades, making it the worst performer on this count of all emerging economies. The top 10% of wage earners now make 12 times more than the bottom 10%, up from a ratio of six in the 1990s.

• The Forbes list of billionaires featured 55 Indians in 2013. Strikingly, when the HDI is adjusted for inequality and every second malnourished child in the world is also an Indian. • There are in total 7 states of India which are lagging behind in the race of economic growth namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. As per the recently released Human Development Report (HDR) 2013, India ranked 136th 134th the index loses its value by as much as 29.3 per cent. • Individual income inequality measured by the Gini index has also consistently risen, at 39.9 per cent in 2011. The Indian growth-inequality paradox is easy to pin down—the wealth that India creates is not evenly redistributed. • As per available data, a little more than 50 per cent of India`s population continues to be engaged in agriculture (which barely accounts for 14 per cent of GDP), while less than 30 per cent of the population works in the service sector, which accounts for more than 67 per cent of GDP. • Inequality in access to education is so glaring, that in HDR 2013, India`s education index loses more than 40 per cent of its value once adjusted for inequality. These have to do with misplaced policy priorities of the government that are only aimed at short-term benefits with an eye towards political gain. • Spending and consumption by the richest 5% zoomed up by over 60% between 2000 and 2012 in rural areas while the poorest 5% saw an increase of just 30%. In urban areas, the richest segments spending increased by 63% while the poorest saw an increase of 33%. The effect of inflation was removed while making these comparisons. • The cause remains to be that the most significant link between growth and poverty reduction is employment generation. Unfortunately, for India, the last decade is widely recognized as a decade of jobless growth, thereby further exacerbating the problem. Compiled By: Shwetlana Tripathi