According to a recently released Oxfam Report, income of 84 percent of households in the country declined in 2021.
Finding of the Report:
Billionaires:
India's billionaire rank increased from 102 to 142 amid the large income inequality exacerbated by the Covid pandemic.
According to the report, India is the third largest number of billionaires in the world after China and the United States, with more billionaires than France, Sweden and Switzerland combined.
India's billionaire numbers in 2021 have increased by 39%.
Wealth of the richest and lowest:
In 2021, the total wealth of 100 of India's wealthiest people reached a record high of Rs 57.3 Lakh Crore ($ 775 billion).
In the same year, the bottom 50 percent of the population accounted for only 6 percent of national wealth.
During the pandemic (March 2020 to November 30, 2021), the wealth of Indian billionaires increased from Rs 23.14 million (US $ 313 billion) to Rs 53.16 million (US $ 719.0 billion).
The report described inequality as economic violence, adding that lack of access to health care, gender-based violence, hunger and climate change kill 21,000 people each day.
Extreme poverty:
Currently, it is estimated that more than 4.6 million Indians will be in extreme poverty in 2020.
Health budget:
India's health budget recorded a 10% decline from the 2020 RE (revised estimate)21.
Education budget:
Funding for education has been reduced by 6%.
Social security budget:
Budget allocation to the social security system has dropped from 1.5% of the Union's total budget to 0.6%, almost half of the world's new poor.
Gender parity:
Women lost a total of Rs 59.11 billion (US $ 800 billion) in income in 2020, and women's employment today is Rs 1.3 billion less than in 2019.
Correcting this obscene inequality error is more important than ever by targeting extreme wealth through taxation and returning that money to the real economy to save lives.
Taxation:
The increase in indirect taxes on federal revenues continued for four years, but the share of corporate taxes declined.
The additional tax on fuel is up 33% year-on-year in the first six months of 2020-21 and 79% higher than before Covid.
At the same time, the wealth tax "for the ultra-rich" was abolished in 2016.
Out-of-pocket costs:
According to data from the National Sample Survey (NSS) (201718), the out-of-pocket cost (OOPE) of private hospitals is about 6 times that of inpatient treatment in public hospitals and 2 to 3 times that of outpatient treatment.
India's average OOPE is 62.67 percent, while the world average is 18.12 percent.
Federal structure:
Despite the federal structure of the country, the revenue structure maintained control of resources in the hands of the center, and the pandemic management was still left to the state-lack of financial or human resources to do so.
Way Forward:
A 99% one off windfall tax on the wealth gains of the 10 wealthiest men in Covid19 alone will generate $ 812 billion.
These resources produce sufficient vaccines worldwide and bridge the funding gap in climate change control, universal health insurance and social protection, and efforts to combat gender-based violence in more than 80 countries.
The world can create an economy in which no one can live in poverty or with the wealth of unimaginable millionaires.
