'Staggeringly out-of-touch claim': Congress on India becoming fourth 'most equal' country

New Delhi: Congress on Sunday described a government statement claiming that India has become the fourth 'most equal' country as a "staggeringly out-of-touch claim".

The party said the appropriate rate to measure poverty in India, which is a "lower middle-income country", is $3.65 per day and by this measure, the poverty rate for India in 2022 is significantly higher at 28.1 per cent.

"No country that has a poverty rate of 28.1 per cent can make a justifiable claim to being one of the most equal societies in the world," Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said in a statement.

He said the Modi government’s “drum beaters and cheerleaders” have begun "spinning" the World Bank’s data in 'Poverty and Equity Brief for India' report released in April to make the "staggeringly out-of-touch claim" that India is among the world’s most equal societies.

Ramesh said the wage disparity in the country is high with the median earnings of the top 10 per cent being 13 times higher than the bottom 10 per cent in 2023-24.

He said the report is clear that poverty remains concerningly high and so does inequality.

"The good news that the Modi government is so desperately trying to wrangle out of this report is partly attributable to the limited availability and the uncertain quality of government data, as well as to the selection of benchmarks to measure poverty," he said.

Recalling the party's statement in April when the World Bank released the report, he said the "lack of clarity and transparency over the prevalence of poverty" in India is a result of this government’s "confused and opaque" policymaking.

"Sharpening inequality is now firmly embedded in the nature of our economic growth and its trajectory fueled by the Modi govt’s policies and the widening gap between the privileged few and the dispossessed many can no longer be denied," he added.