Address inequality

The incoming govt must prioritise inclusive growth and work towards prosperity for all.

The pre-wedding extravaganza of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in Jamnagar, as reported by the Daily Mail, entailed a staggering expenditure of £120 million (approximately Rs 1,259 crore). It was also quickly calculated that the amount was but small beer to Asia’s richest man, with a real-time net worth of $117.7 billion (approximately Rs 9.7 lakh crore). Nita Ambani’s emerald-diamond necklace was worth around Rs 500 crore, while Anant Ambani’s timepiece, a Richard Mille RM 56-02 sapphire tourbillon, was worth around $2.2 million (approximately Rs 18.2 crore). Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal’s wedding in 2018 had the Ambanis spending a whopping $100 million (approximately Rs 828 crore). The ostentatious display of wealth appeared crude to many and triggered jealousy, disbelief, admiration, and many other complex emotions in those who watched it through various social media feeds. Dhirubhai Ambani once said that jealousy was a mark of respect in India.

Oxfam, the British-founded confederation of charitable organisations dedicated to alleviating global poverty, annually publishes an inequality report to flag the stark divide between the rich and poor. Its Inequality Inc report, released in January, notes that global inequality between the wealthy and impoverished has notably worsened for the first time in 25 years. The report suggests that eradicating poverty altogether would take 229 years, while the world may see its first trillionaire within the next decade, indicating the rise of crony capitalism. This trend is perpetuated by the impacts of climate change, largely driven by billionaires and corporations.

Isn’t the situation improving for the poor? According to the 2024 Asia-Pacific Human Development Report, despite persistent disparity and widespread disruption, poverty rates (based on the international poverty measure of $2.15 per day) plummeted from 40 to 10% between 2004 and 2019. Additionally, between 2015-16 and 2019-21, the proportion of the population living in multidimensional poverty fell from 25 to 15%. In India, between 2000 and 2022, per capita income soared from $442 to $2,389. But if one considers that the net worth of the world’s five richest billionaires has spiked from $405 billion in 2020 to over $869 billion today, accumulating wealth at $14 million per hour—gaining $3.3 trillion in 2023 alone, a 34% net wealth surge versus 2020—while nearly five billion people have become poorer, it becomes apparent that prosperity is not evenly distributed. 

There is no deep resentment or visceral anger against the fast-widening income and wealth gap between the alleged 1% “haves” and the 99% “have-nots.” We accept that our billionaires are people with agency and enterprise. Didn’t Sanudasa proclaim, when he discovered the pearls he had hidden in the topknot of his hair before he was shipwrecked, that to have money is to have life? ‘Let the sole aim be of men of sense to make money’, this pearl of wisdom emerged from the conversation among the four Brahmins in the Panchatantra. The unfairness of a system where some are exceedingly wealthy while others are desperately poor sparked left-wing populist movements against economic inequality, corporate greed, big finance, and the influence of money in politics. The Occupy Wall Street Movement in 2011, for instance, demanded an end to such inequalities by whatever means possible and erupted with unrestrained vehemence. They called for the destruction of the “new Gilded Age” with both punitive and compensatory redistribution of wealth and power to “the dispossessed majority.”

In addition to the lack of legitimate means of employment and income generation, another significant consequence of gross inequality is the rise of corruption and black money, not to speak of entitlement-related protest movements fed off by reservation-based politics. Marathas, Patels, and Jats have in the past few years sought reservations citing their ‘backwardness’. Massive unemployment also gives rise to different layers of inequality and acquisitiveness, often becoming the breeding ground for irregularities as hydra-headed as the Vyapam scam, a massive admission and recruitment scandal under the watch of the Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government, or the West Bengal school recruitment scam under the watch of the West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.

There are institutional impediments to growing rich. There are people who suffer from unfair exclusion—denial of access to income-earning assets and capital (agricultural and non-agricultural enterprises and businesses), employment, education, health services, and governance—based on the group identity of persons such as caste, ethnicity, gender, religion, and other identities. Lack of access to quality education, health, and the right set of skills reduces both the productivity and the employability of poor people. Standing on the cusp of yet another Lok Sabha election, the real challenge for a new government in an aspiring India would be to bring prosperity to all and put an end to the stark inequality that defines us. 

(The writer is a Kolkata- based commentator on geopolitics, development, and culture)