Widening inequality is cause for worry

Global NGO Oxfam’s annual report on poverty, released this week, has presented a dire picture of inequality within countries and across the world and noted how it is widening, with serious consequences in all areas of life. The world has always had stark inequalities, and the Covid pandemic has expanded them. The richest five men in the world have more than doubled their fortunes since 2020, while the poorest 60 per cent -- almost five billion people -- have become poorer.

The world will see its first trillionaire in about a decade, yet at the present rate of alleviation, it will take 229 years to eradicate poverty. It found that 99 per cent of the people are worse off after the pandemic and at least one person dies every four seconds because of inequality. Inequalities of all kinds -- economic, gender, racial, and between nations -- have become more acute. 

Inequality has always been recognised as a fact of life but its impact has not always been fully understood. At the basic level, it results in hunger and deprivation, which kill people, and in gender-based violence and unequal access to healthcare and education.

Most of the greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change are accounted for by the richer sections, but their consequences are suffered more acutely by the poor. Though there is inequality around us in all sectors and there is talk about reducing it, little action is taken to address it. This is mainly because the policies and actions to counter poverty are formulated and implemented by the rich, who often use the very same policies, ideas and resources to further enrich themselves. Inequalities in economic, political and social sectors work against the weak and the marginalised. 

Indian society has for long been deeply unequal, with social divisions aggravating economic and other kinds of inequality. During the Covid period, the healthcare budget actually saw a 10 per cent decline, and the allocation for education was cut by 6 per cent. Poverty and unemployment increased in the country while the rich became richer. While half of the global poor are in India, it has the third highest number of billionaires in the world.

The report has also noted that the revenue resources remained concentrated in the central government’s hands, though the country has a federal structure. It has suggested a number of measures to tackle inequality. They include taxing the gains made by the rich during the Covid period and using it to save lives and to reduce poverty.

It has also suggested that laws and rules, including those that discriminate against women,  should be changed to shift power in the economy and society towards the poor. Many of the suggestions are not new, but they have to be made again and again.